Seed dispersal syndrome predicts ethanol concentration of fruits in a tropical dry forest.

ABSTRACT: Studying fruit traits and their interactions with seed dispersers can improve how we interpret patterns of biodiversity, ecosystem function and evolution. Mounting evidence suggests that fruit ethanol is common and variable, and may exert selective pressures on seed dispersers. To test this, we comprehensively assess fruit ethanol content in a wild ecosystem and explore sources of variation. We hypothesize that both phylogeny and seed dispersal syndrome explain variation in ethanol levels, and we predict that fruits with mammalian dispersal traits will contain higher levels of ethanol than those with bird dispersal traits. We measured ripe fruit ethanol content in species with mammal- (n = 16), bird- (n = 14) or mixed-dispersal (n = 7) syndromes in a Costa Rican tropic

SUBMITTER: Casorso JG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10354487 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature