Environmental niche and functional role similarity between invasive and native palms in the Atlantic Forest

Abstract

Invasive species can significantly affect native species when their niches are similar. Ecological and morphological similarities between the invasive Australian palm, Archontophoenix cunninghamiana, and the native palm from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, Euterpe edulis, suggest that they have similar environmental requirements and functional roles (i.e., the function a species performs in an ecosystem). This similarity raises concerns about how the invasive palm could impact the native species in the present and future. We used spatial (species occurrences) and ecological information (frugivory events) to characterize the environmental niche and functional role of the two palms and assess their overlap. In addition, we predicted the potential area of occurrence of each palm within the Brazilian Atlantic Forest under current and future climate conditions.We estimated the environmental conditions used by the invasive plant based on its native distribution only, and based on all areas where the species is able to establish across the globe. We found that the environmental niches of the two palm species overlap up to 39%, which corresponds to 50% of the current geographic distribution of E. edulis in the Atlantic Forest. In the areas where the two species potentially co-occur, the impact of the invasive species on the native should be influenced by the invasive species interactions with frugivores. We found that the frugivory functional role of the two palms was similar (84% overlap) which suggest that A. cunninghamiana might disrupt the seed dispersal of the native palm. However, co-occurrence between the palms may decline with future climate change, as the potentially environmental suitable area for the invasive palm is predicted to decline by 10% to 55%. Evaluating the similarity in both the environmental niche, of the native and global extent, and the functional role of native and invasive plants provides a detailed understanding of the potential impact of invasive species on native species now and in the future.

Worldwide Distribution of Antagonistic-Mutualistic Relationships Between Parrots and Palms

“…Palms have been widely introduced elsewhere for ornamental purposes, food, and other uses (Byg and Balslev, 2001;Campos and Ehringhaus, 2003;Byg et al, 2006;Sosnowska and Balslev, 2009;Martins et al, 2014), resulting in the establishment and spread of many palm species into new areas (Fehr et al, 2020;Bello et al, 2021). We found that, in general, parrots interact similarly with native and introduced palms, maybe due to the generalist habits of these avian species (Christianini, 2006).…”

Drivers of Ecological and Evolutionary Disruptions in the Seed Dispersal Process: Research Trends and Biases

“…For instance, one of the latest studies showed that the loss of seed dispersal interactions may impair the potential of a palm species to track climate change, especially in combination with fragmentation and forest loss (Sales et al, 2021). The handful of SDD studies found in our literature review mainly derived from empirical data concerning extreme climatic events (e.g., Zhou et al, 2013;Standish et al, 2018) or the combination of empirical data with simulations based on future climate projections and species distribution models (see e.g., Bello et al, 2021;Sales et al, 2021). More research following such an approach would thus be a promising way to provide insights into SDD under climate change, synergistic effects among drivers, and to guide management interventions for conservation and restoration.…”

“…A previous study by McConkey et al (2012) pointed out that such synergistic interactions between different types of disturbances could exacerbate the negative impacts on seed dispersal, although they were rarely examined (but see Portela and Dirzo, 2020). Since then, there has been a number of studies that have simultaneously evaluated the effects of more than one driver on SDD, but they remain scarce (e.g., Pejchar, 2015;Rotllan-Puig and Traveset, 2016;Brocardo et al, 2018;de Assis Bomfim et al, 2018;Qie et al, 2019;Kiel et al, 2020;Bello et al, 2021;Marone and Pol, 2021;Sales et al, 2021). Assessing regional trends in research could thus help in understanding the main patterns in the drivers and synergisms between processes that could operate at different scales.…”

Knowledge gaps hamper understanding the relationship between fragmentation and biodiversity loss: the case of Atlantic Forest fruit-feeding butterflies

“…The Brazilian Atlantic Forest is a highly human-impacted biodiversity hotspot, which is threatened by deforestation, climate change, and invasive species ( Mittermeier et al, 2005 ; Bellard et al, 2014 ; Joly, Metzger & Tabarelli, 2014 ; Bello et al, 2020 ). The increase in forest fragmentation, with the consequent increment in the number of small forest patches ( Taubert et al, 2018 ), translates into an overall loss of biodiversity and changes in ecosystem functioning ( Sala et al, 2000 ; Dirzo & Raven, 2003 ; Butchart et al, 2010 ; Haddad et al, 2015 ; Chase et al, 2020 ; Hortal & Santos, 2020 ).…”