Estimating seed and pollen dispersal kernels from genetic data demonstrates a high pollen dispersal capacity for an endangered palm species

Santos, Javier; Varassin, Isabela Galarda; Muschner, Valéria Cunha; Ovaskainen, Otso

doi:10.1002/ajb2.1176

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 75 publications

(87 reference statements)

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“…We have not repeated a subset of individuals to estimate the rate of genotyping error. However, we estimate that the mismatch at one allele corresponds to a genotyping error of 11% estimated using a similar set of loci (Santos et al., 2018). To characterize the richness of maternal progenies within and across deposition sites, we estimated the number of different maternal genotypes at the deposition site and the mean at the study area levels respectively.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Extant fruit‐eating birds promote genetically diverse seed rain, but disperse to fewer sites in defaunated tropical forests

et al. 2020

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The world‐wide decline in populations of large‐bodied vertebrates due to deforestation and poaching threatens the persistence of animal‐dispersed plants by reducing long‐distance seed dispersal and generating aggregated seed rain patterns. We evaluated whether the composition of maternal trees contributing to the seed rain is also impacted by the loss of large frugivores. By combining molecular tools with a thorough sampling of the frugivore‐generated seed rain we quantified the number of seeds, richness of maternal progenies and number of maternal effective alleles in the seed rain of a tropical palm Euterpe edulis across ten Atlantic Forest remnants with varying levels of avian defaunation and density of palm conspecifics. Forest structure in defaunated areas was characterized by higher canopy openness. Defaunation did not affect the number of seeds dispersed or of effective alleles, but, together with palm density, was associated with higher numbers of maternal genotypes in the seed rain. This result suggests that medium‐sized birds may play an important role in mixing maternal genotypes where large‐sized frugivores have been extirpated. Defaunation, however, impacted the spatial distribution of seeds, with deposition sites in avian depauperated forests less likely to receive at least one seed. Synthesis. Our study suggests that medium‐sized frugivores contribute to maintaining the quantitative component of seed dispersal and local genetic diversity of a threatened tropical palm in human degraded forests and, therefore, may be important for guaranteeing the persistence of remnant animal‐dispersed plant populations under scenarios of rapid environmental change. The loss of large‐bodied frugivores, however, can disrupt longer dispersal events and strengthen the dispersal spatial limitation, with consequences for plant spatial distribution and fine‐scale genetic structure at the population level.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Extant fruit‐eating birds promote genetically diverse seed rain, but disperse to fewer sites in defaunated tropical forests

et al. 2020

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“…The flowers are abundant in nectar and pollen and attract a wide variety of insects (Reis et al, 2000b). Despite this, its pollination is mainly performed by bees belonging to different taxonomic groups such as Meliponini, Euglossini, and Honeybees (Reis et al, 2000b; Dorneles et al, 2013; Santos et al, 2018a; Santos et al, 2018b). E. edulis fruits have a pulp rich in lipid and fiber (Silva et al, 2013; Da Silva et al, 2014) and are used as food by 58 bird species and 20 mammal species (Galetti et al, 2013).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the main seed dispersers are large frugivores such as toucans and cotingas. Small birds such as thrushes are especially important in defaunated areas (Reis and Kageyama, 2000; Galetti et al, 2013; Santos et al, 2018a; Santos et al, 2018b).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic Disturbances Eroding the Genetic Diversity of a Threatened Palm Tree: A Multiscale Approach

et al. 2019

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Habitat loss and the illegal exploitation of natural resources are among the main drivers of species extinction around the world. These disturbances act at different scales, once changes in the landscape composition and configuration operate at large scales and exploitation of natural resources at local scales. Evidence suggests that both scales are capable of triggering genetic erosion in the remaining populations. However, most of the studies so far did not evaluate simultaneously the effects of these disturbances on genetic diversity and structure of plants. In this study, we used a multiple scale approach to empirically evaluate the impacts caused by local and landscape scale disturbances in the genetic diversity and structure of an endangered palm tree, Euterpe edulis. We sampled and genotyped with microsatellite markers 544 juveniles of E. edulis in 17 fragments of Atlantic Forest in Brazil. In addition, we estimated the local logging rate and the forest cover and isolation at landscape scale. We found that the palm populations have not undergone any recent bottleneck events and that only logging intensification had affected the fixation index and the number of private alleles. Additionally, we did not detect any evidence of spatial genetic structure or genetic divergence associated with environmental disturbance variables at different scales. However, we identified distinct genetic clusters, which may indicate a reduction of gene flow between fragments that were previously a continuous habitat. Our results show that local disturbances, which act directly on population size reduction, such as logging, modified the genetic diversity more rapidly, whereas genetic structure is probably more influenced by large-scale modifications. In this way, to maximize the conservation efforts of economically exploited species, we recommend to increase the inspection to reduce the illegal exploitation, and reforestation of degraded areas, in order to increase the gene flow in Atlantic Forest fragments.

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“…The average pollen flow for monoecious and insect‐pollinated palm species varies from short (< 320 m; Araújo et al., 2017; Eguiarte et al., 1993; Ottewell, Grey, Castillo, & Karubian, 2012; Ramos et al., 2016) to long distances (up to 10 km; dos Santos, Varassin, Muschner, & Ovaskainen, 2018). For the dioecious and wind‐pollinated palm species Phoenix canariensis, the mean effective pollen dispersal distance was only 71 m (Saro, Robledo‐Arnuncio, González‐Pérez, & Sosa, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High genetic diversity with low connectivity among Mauritia flexuosa (Arecaceae) stands from Ecuadorean Amazonia

2020

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Mauritia flexuosa dominated palm swamps are an important forest resource covering over 30,000 km2 across the Amazon basin. In Ecuadorean Amazonia, Mauritia flexuosa, a dioecious and arborescent palm species, forms small and isolated populations or large and dense stands on poorly drained soils. How these populations are genetically interconnected and how genetic diversity varies between cohorts of different ages remains little studied although they are important for conservation of these ecosystems. The genetic structure of Mauritia flexuosa was studied in five natural stands using eight microsatellite loci and two cohorts (seedling and adults). In addition, age structure and sex ratio within the stands were assessed using transects. The age structure of the studied Mauritia flexuosa stands is represented by a high number of seedlings (mean = 1,153.6/ha) and adults (mean = 563.2/ha), with a sex ratio favoring female individuals (1.42:1). These stands are also characterized by a fine‐scale genetic structure, high observed heterozygosity (mean: HO seedlings=0.52; HO adults=0.52), high inbreeding (mean: FIS seedlings = 0.26; FIS adults = 0.26), low number of migrants (Nm=0.29), strong genetic differentiation (mean: pairwise RST/ D‐values seedlings = 0.08/ 0.74; mean RST/D‐values adults = 0.17/ 0.76), and an average effective population size (Ne) of 191.42 individuals. No intergenerational genetic variation was detected between seedlings and adults. We suggest that the high genetic diversity and inbreeding as well as the strong differentiation among stands of these populations could be explained, at least partially, by a low genetic connectivity among populations. Destructive harvesting of its fruits and defaunation will be major threats to Mauritia flexuosa populations in the future. Abstract in Spanish is available with online material

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Estimating seed and pollen dispersal kernels from genetic data demonstrates a high pollen dispersal capacity for an endangered palm species

Abstract: Estimating seed and pollen dispersal kernels from genetic data demonstrates a high pollen dispersal capacity for an endangered palm species.

Cited by 12 publications

References 75 publications

Extant fruit‐eating birds promote genetically diverse seed rain, but disperse to fewer sites in defaunated tropical forests

Extant fruit‐eating birds promote genetically diverse seed rain, but disperse to fewer sites in defaunated tropical forests

Anthropogenic Disturbances Eroding the Genetic Diversity of a Threatened Palm Tree: A Multiscale Approach

High genetic diversity with low connectivity among Mauritia flexuosa (Arecaceae) stands from Ecuadorean Amazonia

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