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Global Patterns in Post-Dispersal Seed Removal by Invertebrates and Vertebrates

It is commonly accepted that species interactions such as granivory are more intense in the tropics. However, this has rarely been tested. A global dataset of post-dispersal seed removal by invertebrates and vertebrates for 79 native plant species from semi-natural and natural terrestrial habitats r...

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Autores principales: Peco, Begoña, Laffan, Shawn W., Moles, Angela T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3949765/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24618879
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0091256
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author Peco, Begoña
Laffan, Shawn W.
Moles, Angela T.
author_facet Peco, Begoña
Laffan, Shawn W.
Moles, Angela T.
author_sort Peco, Begoña
collection PubMed
description It is commonly accepted that species interactions such as granivory are more intense in the tropics. However, this has rarely been tested. A global dataset of post-dispersal seed removal by invertebrates and vertebrates for 79 native plant species from semi-natural and natural terrestrial habitats ranging from 55° N to 45° S, was compiled from the global literature to test the hypothesis that post-dispersal seed removal by invertebrates and vertebrates is more intense at lower latitudes. We also quantified the relationship between post-dispersal seed removal by vertebrates and by invertebrates to global climatic features including temperature, actual evapotranspiration (AET) and rainfall seasonality. Linear mixed effect models were applied to describe the relationships between seed removal and latitude, hemisphere and climatic variables controlling for the effect of seed mass. Post-dispersal seed removal by invertebrates was negatively related to latitude. In contrast, post-dispersal seed removal by vertebrates was positively but weakly related to latitude. Mean annual temperature and actual evapotranspiration were positively related to post-dispersal seed removal by invertebrates, but not to post-dispersal seed removal by vertebrates, which was only marginally negatively related to rainfall seasonality. The inclusion of seed mass improved the fit of all models, but the term for seed mass was not significant in any model. Although a good climatic model for predicting post-dispersal seed predation by vertebrates at the global level was not found, our results suggest different and opposite latitudinal patterns of post-dispersal seed removal by invertebrates vs vertebrates. This is the first time that a negative relationship between post-dispersal seed removal by invertebrates and latitude, and a positive relationship with temperature and AET have been documented at a global-scale. These results have important implications for understanding global patterns in plant-animal interactions, and the factors that shape plant reproductive ecology, and also for predicting how this plant-animal interaction might respond to climate change.
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spelling pubmed-39497652014-03-12 Global Patterns in Post-Dispersal Seed Removal by Invertebrates and Vertebrates Peco, Begoña Laffan, Shawn W. Moles, Angela T. PLoS One Research Article It is commonly accepted that species interactions such as granivory are more intense in the tropics. However, this has rarely been tested. A global dataset of post-dispersal seed removal by invertebrates and vertebrates for 79 native plant species from semi-natural and natural terrestrial habitats ranging from 55° N to 45° S, was compiled from the global literature to test the hypothesis that post-dispersal seed removal by invertebrates and vertebrates is more intense at lower latitudes. We also quantified the relationship between post-dispersal seed removal by vertebrates and by invertebrates to global climatic features including temperature, actual evapotranspiration (AET) and rainfall seasonality. Linear mixed effect models were applied to describe the relationships between seed removal and latitude, hemisphere and climatic variables controlling for the effect of seed mass. Post-dispersal seed removal by invertebrates was negatively related to latitude. In contrast, post-dispersal seed removal by vertebrates was positively but weakly related to latitude. Mean annual temperature and actual evapotranspiration were positively related to post-dispersal seed removal by invertebrates, but not to post-dispersal seed removal by vertebrates, which was only marginally negatively related to rainfall seasonality. The inclusion of seed mass improved the fit of all models, but the term for seed mass was not significant in any model. Although a good climatic model for predicting post-dispersal seed predation by vertebrates at the global level was not found, our results suggest different and opposite latitudinal patterns of post-dispersal seed removal by invertebrates vs vertebrates. This is the first time that a negative relationship between post-dispersal seed removal by invertebrates and latitude, and a positive relationship with temperature and AET have been documented at a global-scale. These results have important implications for understanding global patterns in plant-animal interactions, and the factors that shape plant reproductive ecology, and also for predicting how this plant-animal interaction might respond to climate change. Public Library of Science 2014-03-11 /pmc/articles/PMC3949765/ /pubmed/24618879 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0091256 Text en © 2014 Peco et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Peco, Begoña
Laffan, Shawn W.
Moles, Angela T.
Global Patterns in Post-Dispersal Seed Removal by Invertebrates and Vertebrates
title Global Patterns in Post-Dispersal Seed Removal by Invertebrates and Vertebrates
title_full Global Patterns in Post-Dispersal Seed Removal by Invertebrates and Vertebrates
title_fullStr Global Patterns in Post-Dispersal Seed Removal by Invertebrates and Vertebrates
title_full_unstemmed Global Patterns in Post-Dispersal Seed Removal by Invertebrates and Vertebrates
title_short Global Patterns in Post-Dispersal Seed Removal by Invertebrates and Vertebrates
title_sort global patterns in post-dispersal seed removal by invertebrates and vertebrates
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3949765/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24618879
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0091256
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