Journal ArticleDOI
Flying foxes cease to function as seed dispersers long before they become rare
Kim R. McConkey,Donald R. Drake +1 more
TLDR
It is found the relationship between ecological function (seed dispersal) and flying fox abundance was nonlinear and consistent with the hypothesis that flying foxes may cease to be effective seed dispersers long before becoming rare.Abstract:
Rare species play limited ecological roles, but particular behavioral traits may predispose species to become functionally extinct before becoming rare. Flying foxes (Pteropodid fruit bats) are important dispersers of large seeds, but their effectiveness is hypothesized to depend on high population density that induces aggressive interactions. In a Pacific archipelago, we quantified the proportion of seeds that flying foxes dispersed beyond the fruiting canopy, across a range of sites that differed in flying fox abundance. We found the relationship between ecological function (seed dispersal) and flying fox abundance was nonlinear and consistent with the hypothesis. For most trees in sites below a threshold abundance of flying foxes, flying foxes dispersed <1% of the seeds they handled. Above the threshold, dispersal away from trees increased to 58% as animal abundance approximately doubled. Hence, flying foxes may cease to be effective seed dispersers long before becoming rare. As many species' populations decline worldwide, identifying those with threshold relationships is an important precursor to preservation of ecologically effective densities.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Defaunation in the Anthropocene
TL;DR: Defaunation is both a pervasive component of the planet’s sixth mass extinction and also a major driver of global ecological change.
Journal ArticleDOI
Basin‐Wide Effects of Game Harvest on Vertebrate Population Densities in Amazonian Forests: Implications for Animal‐Mediated Seed Dispersal
Carlos A. Peres,Erwin Palacios +1 more
TL;DR: A comprehensive meta-analysis of changes in population density or other abundance estimates for 30 mid-sized to large mammal, bird and reptile species in 101 hunted and nonhunted, but otherwise undisturbed, Neotropical forest sites finds frugivorous species showed more marked declines in abundance in heavily hunted sites than seed predators and browsers, regardless of the effects of body size.
Journal ArticleDOI
Beyond species loss: The extinction of ecological interactions in a changing world
Alfonso Valiente-Banuet,Marcelo A. Aizen,Julio M. Alcántara,Juan Arroyo,Andrea Aristides Cocucci,Mauro Galetti,María B. García,Daniel García,José M. Gómez,José M. Gómez,Pedro Jordano,Rodrigo Medel,Luis Navarro,José Ramón Obeso,Ramona Oviedo,Nelson Ramírez,Pedro J. Rey,Anna Traveset,Miguel Verdú,Regino Zamora +19 more
TL;DR: A novel model proposes a novel approach that relates the diversity of both species and interactions along a gradient of environmental deterioration and explores how the rate of loss of ecological functions, and consequently of ecosystem services, can be accelerated or restrained depending on how the rates of species loss covaries with the rateof interactions loss.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Impact of Hunting on the Mammalian Fauna of Tropical Asian Forests
TL;DR: Hunting has become a massive problem in tropical Asian forests because of high human population densities and a generally well-developed infrastructure that not only makes most forest areas easily accessible, but also gives access to distant urban markets for luxury (often medicinal) products.
Journal ArticleDOI
Functional traits, the phylogeny of function, and ecosystem service vulnerability.
Sandra Díaz,Andy Purvis,Johannes H. C. Cornelissen,Georgina M. Mace,Georgina M. Mace,Michael J. Donoghue,Robert M. Ewers,Pedro Jordano,William D. Pearse +8 more
TL;DR: A novel risk-assessment framework is developed that integrates ecological and evolutionary perspectives on functional traits to determine species’ effects on ecosystems and their tolerance of environmental changes, and suggests a research agenda at the interface of evolutionary biology and ecosystem ecology.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities
Norman Myers,Russell A. Mittermeier,Cristina G. Mittermeier,Gustavo A. B. da Fonseca,Jennifer Kent +4 more
TL;DR: A ‘silver bullet’ strategy on the part of conservation planners, focusing on ‘biodiversity hotspots’ where exceptional concentrations of endemic species are undergoing exceptional loss of habitat, is proposed.
Book
Aims and Methods of Vegetation Ecology
TL;DR: Aims and methods of vegetation ecology are studied to propose new strategies for the sustainable management of vegetation in the arid areas.
Journal ArticleDOI
Herbivores and the Number of Tree Species in Tropical Forests
TL;DR: Any event that increases the efficiency of the predators at eating seeds and seedlings of a given tree species may lead to a reduction in population density of the adults of that species and/or to increased distance between new adults and their parents.
Journal ArticleDOI
Catastrophic regime shifts in ecosystems: linking theory to observation
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors review emerging ways to link theory to observation, and conclude that although, field observations can provide hints of alternative stable states, experiments and models are essential for a good diagnosis.