10.5061/DRYAD.9S4MW6MBQ
Carlo, Tomás
0000-0002-2092-0053
Pennsylvania State University
Data from: Spatially-explicit avian frugivory, fruit availability, and
seed rain in a latitudinal gradient of the Americas
Dryad
dataset
2020
National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/021nxhr62
DEB-1556719
2020-11-26T00:00:00Z
2020-11-26T00:00:00Z
en
1917575 bytes
2
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Network metrics are widely used to infer the roles of mutualistic animals
in plant communities and to predict the effect of species' loss.
However, their empirical validation is scarce. Here we parameterized a
joint species model of frugivory and seed dispersal with bird movement and
foraging data from tropical and temperate communities. With this model we
investigate the effect of frugivore loss on seed rain, and compare our
predictions to those of standard coextinction models and network metrics.
Topological coextinction models underestimated species loss after the
removal of highly-linked frugivores with unique foraging behaviors.
Network metrics informed about changes in seed rain quantity after
frugivore loss. However, changes in seed rain composition were only
predicted by partner diversity. Nestedness, closeness, and d’
specialization could not anticipate the effects of rearrangements in
plant-frugivore communities following species loss. Accounting for
behavioral differences among mutualists is critical to improve predictions
from network models.
See methods section in : "Can network metrics predict vulnerability
and species roles in bird-dispersed plant communities? Not without
behavior" by Morán López, Teresa; Espíndola, Walter; Vizzachero,
Benjamin S.; Fontanella, Antonio; Salinas, Letty; Arana, César; Amico,
Guillermo; Pizo, Marco; Carlo, Tomas A.; Morales, Juan Manuel Morales.
Ecology Letters in press. Data consists of one Excel file from each study
site. Each file contains a tab for (1) a diagram of the each grid and the
arrangement of sampling cells (2) plant transect data around the plot, (3)
foraging observations of individual birds with information of movements
across grid cells (10 x 10 meters) of the study sites, (4) fruit
availability data per week for each of the grid cells of study cites (only
ripe fruits ready to be eated included in counts). Foraging observations:
individual birds were followed (focal individuals) and the location (grid
cell) were foraging ocurred was noted, including the plant species
consumed and the number of fruits ingested (or the number of fruit pieces
taken in the case of large fruits eaten in piece-meal fashion).
Observations lasted 3-5 hours in the mornings or afternoons and included
2-4 observers. Frugivory were also recodedfor non-focal individuals and
noted as "incidental". Plant transects: four transects at each
of three distance classes (100, 200, 300 meters x 2 m wide) from study
plots were established to sample the abundance of ornithocorous plant
species beyond the plots. Transects increased in length with distance to
maintain sampling proportional. At 100 meters they were 100 m in length,
at 200 meters they were 125 m, and at 300 m they measure 175 m in length.
The height and canopy diameter of each ornithochorous plant species was
measured for those plants intersected by the transect areas. Plot
phenology: ripe fruits were estimated within each cell grid once per week.
Unripe fruits were not counted. Phenology outside plot: ripe fruits were
tallied in a sample of tagged plant species round the plot every week.
Weekly data (5-10 weeks) of the ornitochorous (bird-dispersed) plant
species' ripe fruit avaialbility, bird fruit foraging sequences and
movements, and seed rain collected within six 1.0 - 1.6 ha study
sites: Powdermill Nature reserve (Rector PA); Finca Montaña (University of
Puerto Rico, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico); Morro Calzada (Moyobamba, Peru);
Oxapampa -Perú (CDS https://www.cds-peru.org/); Rio Claro, Sao Paulo,
Brazil; Yao-Yao National Forest, Bariloche, Argentina.