Food resource richness increases seed disperser visitations and seed rain richness.

ABSTRACT: Within the context of global change, seed dispersal research often focuses on changes in disperser communities (i.e., seed dispersers, such as birds, in an area) resulting from habitat fragmentation. This approach may not be completely illustrative due to certain seed disperser communities being more robust to fragmentation. Additionally, this top-down approach overlooks how changing food resources on landscapes impacts resource tracking and, subsequently, seed dispersal. We hypothesized resource tracking may promote diffuse plant-animal dispersal mutualisms if resource richness is positively linked to disperser and seed rain richness. We predicted increasing food resource richness attracts more visits and species of avian dispersers, resulting in higher counts and greater species richness

SUBMITTER: Holdgrafer JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10911962 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature