Abstract
Interactions between fleshy fruited plants and frugivores are crucial for the structuring and functioning of biotic communities, particularly in tropical forests where both groups are diverse and play different roles in network organization. However, it remains poorly understood how different groups of frugivore species and fruit traits contribute to network structure. We recorded interactions among 28 plant species and three groups of frugivores (birds, bats, and non-flying mammals) in a seasonal forest in Mexico to determine which species contribute more to network structure and evaluate the importance of each species. We also determined whether fruit abundance, water content, morphology traits, and fruiting phenology are related to network parameters: the number of interactions, species contribution to nestedness, and species strength. We found that plants did not depend on a single group of frugivores, but rather on one species of each group: the bird Pitangus sulphuratus, the bat Sturnira parvidens, and the non-flying mammal Procyon lotor. The abundance, size, and water content of the fruits were significantly related to the contribution to nestedness, number of interactions, and species strength index of plant species. Tree species and birds contributed mainly to the nested structure of the network. We show that the structure of plant-frugivore networks in this seasonal forest is non-random and that fruit traits (i.e., abundance, phenology, size, and water content) are important factors shaping plant-frugivore networks. Identification of the key species and their traits that maintain the complex structure of species interactions is therefore fundamental for the integral conservation of tropical forests.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Antonio López-Carretero for his help in the field and Javier Laborde for making invaluable suggestions on an early version of this manuscript. Thanks also go to Enrique Romero for his help with bird identification, Ángel Méndez for his help with camera trap installation, and to all the field assistants, as well as all the personnel working at Centro de Investigaciones Costeras, La Mancha.
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This work was partially funded by the following grants and institutions: Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (grant number 234062) to R.R.M. (project number 2010-152884), SEP-CONACYT to E. A., and Instituto de Ecología, A.C. (project number 2003011143) to CDC.
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Ramos-Robles, M., Dáttilo, W., Díaz-Castelazo, C. et al. Fruit traits and temporal abundance shape plant-frugivore interaction networks in a seasonal tropical forest. Sci Nat 105, 29 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-018-1556-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-018-1556-y