RT journal article
T1 Frugivore Behavioural Details Matter for Seed Dispersal: A Multi-Species Model for Cantabrian Thrushes and Trees
A1 Morales, Juan Manuel
A1 García, Daniel
A1 Martínez, Daniel
A1 Rodríguez Pérez, Javier
A1 Herrera Vega, José Manuel
A2 Biología
AB Animal movement and behaviour is fundamental for ecosystem functioning. The process of seed dispersal by frugivorous animals is a showcase for this paradigm since their behaviour shapes the spatial patterns of the earliest stage of plant regeneration. However, we still lack a general understanding of how intrinsic (frugivore and plant species traits) and extrinsic (landscape features) factors interact to determine how seeds of a given species are more likely to be deposited in some places more than in others. We develop a multi-species mechanistic model of seed dispersal based on frugivore behavioural responses to landscape heterogeneity. The model was fitted to data from three-years of spatially-explicit field observations on the behaviour of six frugivorous thrushes and the fruiting patterns of three fleshy-fruited trees in a secondary forest of the Cantabrian range (N Spain). With such model we explore how seed rain patterns arise from the interaction between animal behaviour and landscape heterogeneity. We show that different species of thrushes respond differently to landscape heterogeneity even though they belong to the same genus, and that provide complementary seed dispersal functions. Simulated seed rain patterns are only realistic when at least some landscape heterogeneity (forest cover and fruit abundance) is taken into account. The common and simple approach of re-sampling movement data to quantify seed dispersal produces biases in both the distance and the habitat at which seeds arrive. Movement behaviour not only affects dispersal distance and seed rain patterns but also can affect frugivore diet composition even if there is no built-inpreference for fruiting species. In summary, the fate of seeds produced by a given plant species is strongly affected by both the composition of the frugivore assemblage and the landscape-scale context of the plant location, including the presence of fruits from other plants (from the same or different species).
PB PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
SN 1932-6203
YR 2013
FD 2013
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/30614
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/30614
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 12-nov-2026