[en] Functional traits associated with plant-animal interactions are essential for forest functionality, given that a higher diversity of fruit traits is likely to maintain a more diverse assemblage of frugivores and consequently promote the seed dispersal function. Yet, shade-intolerant species tend to persist in human-modified landscapes in the long term, which in turn is expect to reduce fruit trait diversity. Here we evaluate how forest cover at the landscape-scale influences the functional diversity of fruit traits, considering the zoochoric tree community and two regeneration strategies separately (shade-tolerant and shade-intolerant species). We sampled 20 forest remnants in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, located in landscapes with forest cover ranging from 2 to 93%. In each remnant, we established five plots of 25 ×4 m and marked all trees≥5 cm diameter at breast height (DBH). We compared morphological and chemical attributes of fleshy fruits directly related to the attraction of frugivores, and evaluated the similarity of the zoochoric tree assemblage composition along the forest cover gradient, taking into account the two regeneration strategies. We calculated four functional indices (richness, evenness, divergence, and community-level weighted means of trait values) and used either linear models or spatial mixed linear models to evaluate the effects of forest cover on functional diversity. Our main results revealed that forest cover loss has negatively affected fruit functional diversity for the overall zoochoric community. Forest cover loss also affected functional richness and functional evenness for total and shade-tolerant species, and was positively correlated with the content of protein and lipid in fruits of shade-intolerant species. Additionally, sites exhibiting a lower amount of forest cover showed greater compositional similarity among shade-intolerant species but reduced similarity among shade-tolerant species. We conclude that patterns of species reassembly triggered by landscape-scale deforestation decreases the capacity of the remaining forest for provisioning food resources for frugivore assemblages. The maintenance of shade-tolerant species is pivotal in deforested areas, since their fruit quality is not offset by shade-intolerant species. This is particularly important, mainly because shade-intolerant species are those still persisting in disturbed forests; however, their presence will not provide the same food quality supplied by those species lost.
Disciplines :
Environmental sciences & ecology
Author, co-author :
Pessoa, Michaele S.; Universidade Estradual de Santa Cruz - UESC
Hambuckers, Alain ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > Biologie du comportement - Ethologie et psychologie animale
Benchimol, Maíra; Universidade Estradual de Santa Cruz - UESC
Rocha-Santos, Larissa; Universidade Estradual de Santa Cruz - UESC
Bomfim, Jamille A.; Universidade Estradual de Santa Cruz - UESC
Faria, Deborah; Universidade Estradual de Santa Cruz - UESC
Cazetta, Eliana; Universidade Estradual de Santa Cruz - UESC
Language :
English
Title :
Deforestation drives functional diversity and fruit quality changes in a tropical tree assemblage
Publication date :
2017
Journal title :
Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics
CNPq - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico [BR] UESC - Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz [BR] CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior [BR] FAPESB - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado da Bahia [BR]
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