1. Dispersal limitation severely impairs the trajectory of restoration, mainly due to the lack of seed vectors bringing seeds from nearby habitats; a role played by many frugivorous vertebrates that can be absent or reduced in restored or degraded sites. 2. Here we propose a new technique named Induced Seed Dispersal, that amplifies the role that many generalist frugivores have in seed dispersal. It consists in the offering of seeds embedded in the pulp of commercial fruits or whole native fleshy fruits in feeders to generalist frugivores, which ingest the seeds and defecate them elsewhere. We set feeders in a restored site and monitored the visiting pattern of these frugivores with cameras-traps. We also set seed traps to retrieve seeds dispersed by frugivores and offered around 1,500 seeds of Cecropia hololeuca (Urticaceae) per week for 1 year. 3. We recorded at least 24 generalist frugivore species of terrestrial mammals, bats and birds, which ingested/removed the seeds/fruits from the feeders. Seeds of C. hololeuca dispersed by marmosets were retrieved in the seed traps and germinated. We estimated a potential seed rain of more than 600 C. hololeuca seeds ha −1 mo −1. 4. Synthesis and applications. Our study demonstrates that this new technique can make use of generalist frugivores to assist restoration or regeneration into sites where seed dispersal is compromised by the lack of dispersers or limited seed arrival. Inducing seed dispersal by generalist frugivores is a low-cost and easymanaged technique that can be applied year-round in restoration and forest enrichments at all scales.
Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae. Herein, we include published and unpublished data on native terrestrial Neotropical carnivores (Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae). NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES is a publicly available data set that includes 99,605 data entries from 35,511 unique georeferenced coordinates. Detection/non‐detection and quantitative data were obtained from 1818 to 2018 by researchers, governmental agencies, non‐governmental organizations, and private consultants. Data were collected using several methods including camera trapping, museum collections, roadkill, line transect, and opportunistic records. Literature (peer‐reviewed and grey literature) from Portuguese, Spanish and English were incorporated in this compilation. Most of the data set consists of detection data entries (n = 79,343; 79.7%) but also includes non‐detection data (n = 20,262; 20.3%). Of those, 43.3% also include count data (n = 43,151). The information available in NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES will contribute to macroecological, ecological, and conservation questions in multiple spatio‐temporal perspectives. As carnivores play key roles in trophic interactions, a better understanding of their distribution and habitat requirements are essential to establish conservation management plans and safeguard the future ecological health of Neotropical ecosystems. Our data paper, combined with other large‐scale data sets, has great potential to clarify species distribution and related ecological processes within the Neotropics. There are no copyright restrictions and no restriction for using data from this data paper, as long as the data paper is cited as the source of the information used. We also request that users inform us of how they intend to use the data.
Agradeço primeiramente a DEUS por sua infinita graça e amor para comigo, por ser o autor da vida e idealizador desse projeto, esse projeto nasceu em seu coração e através de mim está se concretizando para sua honra e glória.Aos meus pais, LOURENÇO NETO e EDILENE por todo amor, dedicação e educação ofertados a mim ao longo da minha vida, por serem os meus principais incentivadores e acreditarem que sempre eu poderia dar um passo maior e crescer mais. Sem eles não haveria incentivo e determinação para crescer e conquistar.Aos meus três irmãos, ISLANA, ALLAN E ISMÊNIA que são os meus parceiros ao longo da vida, pelas conversas, incentivos, amizade e amor. Eles foram fundamentais ao longo desse processo em seu apoio incessante e encorajamento.
Seed dispersal is an important natural process in the restoration of degraded ecosystems. The aim of this project is to identify the frugivorous fauna with potential for the induced dispersal of Cecropia hololeuca (Urticaceae) seeds, immersed in banana pulp and offered in a feeder located in a restored area, and to evaluate its role in the enrichment of this area. The frugivorous species visiting the feeder were filmed by self-firing cameras and their behavior were analyzed in relation to the frequency of occurrence, as well as their relative efficiency in the dispersal of these seeds. It is expected that the evaluation of birds and mammals as restoration tools through the induced seed dispersal will represent an alternative and efficient technique for the enrichment of restoration sites. The Black-tufted marmoset Callithrix penicillata was the most frequent species in the video sequences, with more individuals per sequence but with the lowest latency time, that is, with the lowest interval between the placement of the bananas and the arrival of the species at the feeder. Visits were more frequent when fruit was available at the feeder, than when fruit was absent. C. penicillata seems to have the greatest dispersal potential among the frugivores in the studied community, although it is currently an invasive primate species in the Atlantic Forest of southeast Brazil.
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