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Nevo O, Filla C, Valenta K, Schupp EW. What drives seed dispersal effectiveness? Ecol Evol 2023; 13:e10459. [PMID: 37664501 PMCID: PMC10468987 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.10459] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2023] [Accepted: 08/11/2023] [Indexed: 09/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Seed dispersal is a critical phase in plant reproduction and forest regeneration. In many systems, the vast majority of woody species rely on seed dispersal by fruit-eating animals. Animals differ in their size, movement patterns, seed handling, gut physiology, and many other factors that affect the number of seeds they disperse, the quality of treatment each individual seed receives, and consequently their relative contribution to plant fitness. The seed dispersal effectiveness framework (SDE) was developed to allow systematic and standardized quantification of these processes, offering a potential for understanding the large-scale dynamics of animal-plant interactions and the ecological and evolutionary consequences of animal behavior for plant reproductive success. Yet, despite its wide acceptance, the SDE framework has primarily been employed descriptively, almost always in the context of local systems. As such, the drivers of variation in SDE across systems and the relationship between its components remain unknown. We systematically searched studies that quantified endozoochorous SDE for multiple animal species dispersing one or more plant species in a given system and offered an integrative examination of the factors driving variation in SDE. Specifically, we addressed three main questions: (a) Is there a tradeoff between high dispersal quality and quantity? (b) Does animal body mass affect SDE or its main components? and (c) What drives more variation in SDE, seed dispersal quality, or quantity? We found that: (a) the relationship between quality and quantity is mediated by body size; (b) this is the result of differential relationships between body mass and the two components, while total SDE is unaffected by body mass; (c)neither quality nor quantity explain more variance in SDE globally. Our results also highlight the need for more standardized data to assess large-scale patterns in SDE.
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Affiliation(s)
- Omer Nevo
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐LeipzigLeipzigGermany
- Institute of BiodiversityFriedrich Schiller University JenaJenaGermany
| | - Caitlynn Filla
- Department of AnthropologyUniversity of FloridaGainesvilleFloridaUSA
| | - Kim Valenta
- Department of AnthropologyUniversity of FloridaGainesvilleFloridaUSA
| | - Eugene W. Schupp
- Department of Wildland Resources and Ecology CenterUtah State UniversityLoganUtahUSA
- Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD‐CSIC)Integrative Ecology GroupSevillaSpain
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Rehling F, Jongejans E, Schlautmann J, Albrecht J, Fassbender H, Jaroszewicz B, Matthies D, Waldschmidt L, Farwig N, Schabo DG. Common seed dispersers contribute most to the persistence of a fleshy-fruited tree. Commun Biol 2023; 6:330. [PMID: 36973362 PMCID: PMC10043030 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-04647-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2022] [Accepted: 03/02/2023] [Indexed: 03/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Mutualistic interactions are by definition beneficial for each contributing partner. However, it is insufficiently understood how mutualistic interactions influence partners throughout their lives. Here, we used animal species-explicit, microhabitat-structured integral projection models to quantify the effect of seed dispersal by 20 animal species on the full life cycle of the tree Frangula alnus in Białowieża Forest, Eastern Poland. Our analysis showed that animal seed dispersal increased population growth by 2.5%. The effectiveness of animals as seed dispersers was strongly related to the interaction frequency but not the quality of seed dispersal. Consequently, the projected population decline due to simulated species extinction was driven by the loss of common rather than rare mutualist species. Our results support the notion that frequently interacting mutualists contribute most to the persistence of the populations of their partners, underscoring the role of common species for ecosystem functioning and nature conservation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Finn Rehling
- University of Marburg, Department of Biology, Conservation Ecology, Marburg, Germany.
- University of Marburg, Department of Biology, Animal Ecology, Marburg, Germany.
| | - Eelke Jongejans
- Radboud University, RIBES, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- NIOO-KNAW, Department of Animal Ecology, Wageningen, Netherlands
| | - Jan Schlautmann
- University of Marburg, Department of Biology, Conservation Ecology, Marburg, Germany
| | - Jörg Albrecht
- Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Hubert Fassbender
- University of Marburg, Department of Biology, Conservation Ecology, Marburg, Germany
| | - Bogdan Jaroszewicz
- University of Warsaw, Faculty of Biology, Białowieża Geobotanical Station, Białowieża, Poland
| | - Diethart Matthies
- University of Marburg, Department of Biology, Plant Ecology, Marburg, Germany
| | - Lina Waldschmidt
- University of Marburg, Department of Biology, Conservation Ecology, Marburg, Germany
| | - Nina Farwig
- University of Marburg, Department of Biology, Conservation Ecology, Marburg, Germany
| | - Dana G Schabo
- University of Marburg, Department of Biology, Conservation Ecology, Marburg, Germany
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van Leeuwen CHA, Villar N, Mendoza Sagrera I, Green AJ, Bakker ES, Soons MB, Galetti M, Jansen PA, Nolet BA, Santamaría L. A seed dispersal effectiveness framework across the mutualism–antagonism continuum. OIKOS 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/oik.09254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Nacho Villar
- Dept of Aquatic Ecology, Netherlands Inst. of Ecology (NIOO‐KNAW) Wageningen the Netherlands
- Inst. de Biociências, Depto de Biodiversidade, Univ. Estadual Paulista (UNESP) Rio Claro São Paulo Brazil
| | | | | | - Elisabeth S. Bakker
- Dept of Aquatic Ecology, Netherlands Inst. of Ecology (NIOO‐KNAW) Wageningen the Netherlands
- Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Group, Wageningen Univ. Wageningen the Netherlands
| | - Merel B. Soons
- Ecology and Biodiversity Group, Inst. of Environmental Biology, Utrecht Univ. Utrecht the Netherlands
| | - Mauro Galetti
- Inst. de Biociências, Depto de Biodiversidade, Univ. Estadual Paulista (UNESP) Rio Claro São Paulo Brazil
- Dept of Biology, Univ. of Miami Coral Gables FL USA
| | - Patrick A. Jansen
- Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Group, Wageningen Univ. Wageningen the Netherlands
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Inst. Panamá República de Panamá
| | - Bart A. Nolet
- Dept of Animal Ecology, Netherlands Inst. of Ecology (NIOO‐KNAW) Wageningen the Netherlands
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