Different contributions of birds and mammals to seed dispersal of a fleshy-fruited tree

Tsunamoto, Yoshihiro; Naoe, Shoji; Masaki, Takashi; Isagi, Yuji

doi:10.1016/j.baae.2019.07.005

Cited by 19 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Second, we could not distinguish the bird species of dispersed seeds. Seed dispersal patterns can differ among bird species (32,33). It is necessary to distinguish them to understand the details of vertical seed dispersal by birds using the methods such as the genetic approach (34).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Timing of fruiting rather than topography determines the direction of vertical seed dispersal by mammals and birds

Tsunamoto

Koike

Tayasu

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Vertical seed dispersal toward higher or lower altitudes has been recognized as one of the critical processes for plants to escape from climate change. Studies exploring vertical seed dispersal are scarce, preventing the prediction of future vegetation dynamics. In the present study, we show that the timing of fruiting, rather than topography, determines the direction of vertical seed dispersal by mammals and birds across mountains in central Japan. We found strong uphill seed dispersal of summer fruiting cherry and weak downhill seed dispersal of summer-to-autumn fruiting cherry, irrespective of mountains and animals. The ascent or descent of animals, following the altitudinal gradients in food plant phenology in the temperate zone, was considered to be a driver of the biased seed dispersal. We found that megafauna (i.e., bears) intensively dispersed seeds vertically. The results suggest that the timing of fruiting and megafauna strongly affect whether animal-dispersed temperate plants can maintain their populations under climate change.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Timing of fruiting rather than topography determines the direction of vertical seed dispersal by mammals and birds

Tsunamoto

Koike

Tayasu

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…Also, scent plays a crucial role in fruit detection in many mammal groups (van der Pijl 1982;Valenta et al 2017;Melin et al 2019), indicating that different fruit syndromes can be explored among birds and mammals in fruit feeders. Mammals' digestion is usually longer than in most birds, allowing seeds to stay longer in their guts, which eventually can increase seed shadow and connect plant populations (Fragoso 1997;Steele et al 2011;Tsunamoto et al 2020). In terms of ecological restoration, the combined effect of birds and mammals' dispersion is indispensable to increase habitat enrichment.…”

Section: Frugivores Seed Ingestion Probability (Sip Model)mentioning

confidence: 99%

The resilient frugivorous fauna of an urban forest fragment and its potential role in vegetation enrichment

et al. 2021

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Anthropocentric defaunation affects critical ecological processes, such as seed dispersal, putting ecosystems and biomes at risk, and leading to habitat impoverishment. Diverse restoration techniques could reverse the process of habitat impoverishment. However, in most of the restoration efforts, only vegetation cover is targeted. Fauna and flora are treated as isolated components, neglecting a key component of ecosystems' functioning, the ecological interactions. We tested whether the resilient frugivorous generalist fauna can improve habitat quality by dispersing native plant species through the use of fruit feeders as in a semideciduous seasonal urban forest fragment. A total of 32 sampling points was selected at a heavily degraded 251-ha urban forest fragment, with feeders installed at two heights monitored by camera-traps. Variable quantities of native fruits of 27 zoochorous species were offered alternately in the feeders. Based on more than 36,000 h of video records, Turdus leucomelas (Class Aves), Sapajus nigritus (Class Mammalia), and Salvator merianae (Class Reptilia) were recorded ingesting the highest fruit species richness. Didelphis albiventris (Class Mammalia) was the most frequent visitor but consumed only pulp in most of the visits. The frugivorous birds were recorded at a high visitation rate and consumed a wider variety of fruits. Our study opens a new avenue to combine the traditional approach of ecosystems recovery and ecological interactions restauration in an urban forest fragment.

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“…Consequently, basic questions remain unanswered, such as whether there are specialised dispersal relationships between specific waterbird and plant species, or how the considerable range of body size and morphology amongst waterbird groups influences plant dispersal. It is well established that larger frugivores disperse plants with larger fruits (Jordano, 1995;Falcón et al, 2020) and that different bird species have different roles in plant-frugivore interactions (Tsunamoto et al, 2020). In contrast, for non-fleshy-fruited plants at a global scale, larger animals tend to ingest smaller seeds, and a higher number of plant species (Chen and Moles, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Endozoochory of the same community of plants lacking fleshy fruits by storks and gulls

Martín‐Vélez

Lovas‐Kiss

Sánchez

et al. 2020

J Vegetation Science

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Aims: Research into the dispersal of plants lacking a fleshy fruit by avian endozoochory remains limited, particularly regarding the different roles of specific vectors in the same habitat. Methods: We compared plants dispersed by endozoochory between two migratory waterbirds differing in body size: the lesser black-backed gull Larus fuscus, and the white stork Ciconia ciconia. We collected faeces and pellets from roosting flocks on dykes in rice fields in Doñana, SW Spain, and extracted intact seeds. Results: We recovered 424 intact seeds from excreta, representing 21 plant taxa, 11 of which germinated under laboratory conditions. Eight plant species are considered weeds, four of them as alien species, and only two have a fleshy fruit. Seed abundance and species richness per sample did not differ between storks and gulls. Toadrush (Juncus bufonius) was the dominant species, accounting for 49% of seeds recovered. PERMANOVA and mvabund analyses revealed no differences in the proportions of each plant species dispersed by the two vectors, and seasonal variation in abundance was absent. Overall, germinability was 19%, and declined with increasing delay between sample collection and processing. Transects along dykes identified 52 plant taxa, only 18 of which were recorded in excreta. Conclusions: Overlap in the communities of non-fleshy-fruited plants dispersed by two unrelated birds of different size suggests that waterbird plant dispersal networks are different from frugivore networks. Unlike for frugivores, decoupling between seed production and ingestion reduces seasonal variation in endozoochory rates. For Juncus bufonius and other plants, these avian vectors provide maximum dispersal distances several orders of magnitude greater than predicted from their dispersal syndromes. Endozoochory by migratory waterbirds has major implications for plant distributions in a rapidly changing world, and more research is required before we can predict which plants disperse regularly via this mechanism.

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Different contributions of birds and mammals to seed dispersal of a fleshy-fruited tree

Cited by 19 publications

References 55 publications

Timing of fruiting rather than topography determines the direction of vertical seed dispersal by mammals and birds

Timing of fruiting rather than topography determines the direction of vertical seed dispersal by mammals and birds

The resilient frugivorous fauna of an urban forest fragment and its potential role in vegetation enrichment

Endozoochory of the same community of plants lacking fleshy fruits by storks and gulls

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