Living in the land of ghosts: fruit traits and the importance of large mammals as seed dispersers in the Pantanal, Brazil.

Abstract

This chapter presents the characteristics of fleshy-fruited plants in the Pantanal (Central Brazil) and describes the contributions of different animal guilds to seed dispersal. Fruits traits in the Pantanal are compared with those in the Atlantic rain forest (Brazil), in a mosaic of forest and savannah in Africa (Ivory Coast), and in an African wetland (Okavango, Botswana) to test similarities in fruit size, colour and shape. It discusses some potential ecological mechanisms that contribute to plant population persistence after the extinction of major seed dispersers and argues based on numerical simulations that for some long-live plants, there is a possibility that minimal recruitment events allow populations to persist.

Geographic patterns in fruit colour diversity: do leaves constrain the colour of fleshy fruits?

“…are present in Europe, mammalian seed dispersal is relatively unimportant compared to the tropics (Turček 1961). Conversely, mammals are, and were historically, particularly important seed dispersers in the Pantanal (Donatti et al 2007;Guimarães et al 2008). That birds perceive fruit colour diversity as being lower in the Pantanal might support an adaptive view on the evolution of fruit colours, because lower colour diversity occurs in a region where birds consume fruits, but other types of dispersers are common and particularly important.…”

“…However, since we collected all fruits that were ripe during the peak fruit season, we assume that our sample is representative for the Brazilian areas, at least during that season. We categorised fruits into two groups, those dispersed primarily by birds [termed birds in electronic supplementary material (ESM), Table S1] and those that were consumed more evenly by birds and other seed disperser types (termed mixed in ESM, Table S1) according to published information (Donatti et al 2007;Schaefer et al 2007), standardised observation of a minimum of 12 h of focal trees in Brazil (usually much longer), and the database assembled by Pedro Jordano (2001).…”

“…The second site was located at Fazenda Rio Negro Ranch in the Pantanal, South-western Brazil (19°S; 57°W), where fruits were collected mainly in gallery forests but also in cerrado and semideciduous forest. Fruits in the Pantanal are generally dispersed by birds, mammals and fish (Donatti et al 2007). Compared to the European locations, fruits were collected over a shorter time period in Brazil.…”

“…However, recent phylogenetically controlled studies show that fruit colour is one of the most important fruit traits reflecting differential food selection by distinct frugivore assemblages (Voigt et al 2004;Lomáscolo et al 2008). If fruit colours are an adaptation to promote detection by dispersers, fruit colour diversity may be generally higher in the tropics, because tropical regions house greater diversities of seed dispersers (Gautier-Hion et al 1985;Donatti et al 2007). Alternatively, fruit colours may have a strong phylogenetic signal similar to other fruit traits (Jordano 1995).…”

Reconstructing past ecological networks: the reconfiguration of seed-dispersal interactions after megafaunal extinction

“…evidence supporting this view is represented by seed-dispersal anachronisms, whereby many extant plant species show traits that are best explained as having been shaped by interactions with extinct megafauna (Janzen and martin 1982;Donatti et al 2007;guimarães et al 2008). Indeed, anachronistic seeddispersal systems are thought to be the result of the disruption of the seed-dispersal services formerly provided by megafauna due to the lQe (Janzen and martin 1982;guimarães et al 2008).…”