FSD 2010 - Carlo

5th International Symposium-Workshop on Frugivores and Seed Dispersal (1985-2010)

Tomás A. Carlo

Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University.

Abstract

Are generalist consumers the ecological rock stars of plant-frugivore mutualistic networks?

Plant-frugivore relationships at community levels are now modeled as bipartite networks of interactions. In this context, it is well documented that the overall architecture of the distribution of frugivory and seed dispersal relationships is cuasi constant across a wide range of communities worldwide. One of such predictions is that generalist frugivores are the "backbone" of communities because they create connectivity patterns both between plants and animals in direct and indirect ways. However, this and other general predictions stemming from the architectural patterns of bipartite network models are fundamentally untested. Here I test some of the main predictions by confronting bipartite models with field data on frugivore behavior and seed dispersal across gradients of environmental heterogeneity. I conclude that bipartite network approaches often fail to identify the key frugivores that hold communities together, especially in the face of strong environmental heterogeneities such as forest destruction-regeneration dynamics.

Reference

Carlo, T.A., Aukema, J.E., and Morales, J.M. 2007. Plant-frugivore interactions as spatially explicit networks: integrating animal foraging and fruiting plant spatial patterns. Pages 369-390 in A. Dennis, E. Schupp, and D. Wescott (Eds.) Seed dispersal: theory and its application in a changing world, CABI, Oxon, UK.