10.5061/DRYAD.K25RQ40
de Assis Bomfim, Jamille
Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz
Guimarães Jr., Paulo R.
University of East Anglia
Peres, Carlos A.
University of East Anglia
Carvalho, Gustavo
Depto de Botânica; Univ. Estadual Paulista; Rio Claro São Paulo Brazil
Cazetta, Eliana
Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz
Data from: Local extinctions of obligate frugivores and patch size
reduction disrupt the structure of seed dispersal networks
Dryad
dataset
2018
Patch size
2018-02-19T17:50:14Z
2018-02-19T17:50:14Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.03592
173396 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
A central problem in ecology is to understand how human impacts affect
plant-animal interactions that lead to effective seed dispersal services
for plant communities. Seed dispersal services are the outcome of
plant-frugivore interactions that often form local networks of interacting
species. Recent work has shown that some frugivorous bird species are more
critical to network organization than others. Here, we explore how patch
size and the potential local extinctions of obligate frugivorous birds
affect the reorganization of seed dispersal networks. We examined the
structure of 20 empirical seed dispersal networks documented across
tropical avian assemblages occupying widely variable habitat patch sizes,
a surrogate of the amount of remaining habitat. Networks within small
forest patches consistently supported both lower plant and bird species
richness. Forest patch size was positively associated with nestedness,
indicating that reductions in patch size disrupted the nested organization
of seed dispersal networks. Obligate frugivores, especially large-bodied
species, were almost entirely absent from small forest patches. Analysis
at the species level showed that obligate frugivores formed the core of
interacting species, connecting species within a given seed dispersal
network. Our combined results revealed that patch size reduction erodes
frugivorous bird diversity, thereby affecting the integrity of seed
dispersal networks. We highlight the importance of conserving large forest
patches to maintain tropical forest functionality.
Assis_et_al_2018_dataInformation about sampled fragments and species
richness (plants and birds), richness of obligate frugivorous birds and
number of interactions in the networks. Frugivory degree classification,
bird body mass information and the 20 matrix of seed dispersal networks
were also presented.Assis_etal_2018_data.xlsx