Cargando…
Species traits and interaction rules shape a species‐rich seed‐dispersal interaction network
Species phenotypic traits affect the interaction patterns and the organization of seed‐dispersal interaction networks. Understanding the relationship between species characteristics and network structure help us understand the assembly of natural communities and how communities function. Here, we ex...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2017
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5478084/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28649359 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2865 |
_version_ | 1783244891654979584 |
---|---|
author | Sebastián‐González, Esther Pires, Mathias M. Donatti, Camila I. Guimarães, Paulo R. Dirzo, Rodolfo |
author_facet | Sebastián‐González, Esther Pires, Mathias M. Donatti, Camila I. Guimarães, Paulo R. Dirzo, Rodolfo |
author_sort | Sebastián‐González, Esther |
collection | PubMed |
description | Species phenotypic traits affect the interaction patterns and the organization of seed‐dispersal interaction networks. Understanding the relationship between species characteristics and network structure help us understand the assembly of natural communities and how communities function. Here, we examine how species traits may affect the rules leading to patterns of interaction among plants and fruit‐eating vertebrates. We study a species‐rich seed‐dispersal system using a model selection approach to examine whether the rules underlying network structure are driven by constraints in fruit resource exploitation, by preferential consumption of fruits by the frugivores, or by a combination of both. We performed analyses for the whole system and for bird and mammal assemblages separately, and identified the animal and plant characteristics shaping interaction rules. The structure of the analyzed interaction network was better explained by constraints in resource exploitation in the case of birds and by preferential consumption of fruits with specific traits for mammals. These contrasting results when looking at bird–plant and mammal–plant interactions suggest that the same type of interaction is organized by different processes depending on the assemblage we focus on. Size‐related restrictions of the interacting species (both for mammals and birds) were the most important factors driving the interaction rules. Our results suggest that the structure of seed‐dispersal interaction networks can be explained using species traits and interaction rules related to simple ecological mechanisms. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5478084 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-54780842017-06-23 Species traits and interaction rules shape a species‐rich seed‐dispersal interaction network Sebastián‐González, Esther Pires, Mathias M. Donatti, Camila I. Guimarães, Paulo R. Dirzo, Rodolfo Ecol Evol Original Research Species phenotypic traits affect the interaction patterns and the organization of seed‐dispersal interaction networks. Understanding the relationship between species characteristics and network structure help us understand the assembly of natural communities and how communities function. Here, we examine how species traits may affect the rules leading to patterns of interaction among plants and fruit‐eating vertebrates. We study a species‐rich seed‐dispersal system using a model selection approach to examine whether the rules underlying network structure are driven by constraints in fruit resource exploitation, by preferential consumption of fruits by the frugivores, or by a combination of both. We performed analyses for the whole system and for bird and mammal assemblages separately, and identified the animal and plant characteristics shaping interaction rules. The structure of the analyzed interaction network was better explained by constraints in resource exploitation in the case of birds and by preferential consumption of fruits with specific traits for mammals. These contrasting results when looking at bird–plant and mammal–plant interactions suggest that the same type of interaction is organized by different processes depending on the assemblage we focus on. Size‐related restrictions of the interacting species (both for mammals and birds) were the most important factors driving the interaction rules. Our results suggest that the structure of seed‐dispersal interaction networks can be explained using species traits and interaction rules related to simple ecological mechanisms. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2017-05-17 /pmc/articles/PMC5478084/ /pubmed/28649359 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2865 Text en © 2017 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Original Research Sebastián‐González, Esther Pires, Mathias M. Donatti, Camila I. Guimarães, Paulo R. Dirzo, Rodolfo Species traits and interaction rules shape a species‐rich seed‐dispersal interaction network |
title | Species traits and interaction rules shape a species‐rich seed‐dispersal interaction network |
title_full | Species traits and interaction rules shape a species‐rich seed‐dispersal interaction network |
title_fullStr | Species traits and interaction rules shape a species‐rich seed‐dispersal interaction network |
title_full_unstemmed | Species traits and interaction rules shape a species‐rich seed‐dispersal interaction network |
title_short | Species traits and interaction rules shape a species‐rich seed‐dispersal interaction network |
title_sort | species traits and interaction rules shape a species‐rich seed‐dispersal interaction network |
topic | Original Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5478084/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28649359 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2865 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT sebastiangonzalezesther speciestraitsandinteractionrulesshapeaspeciesrichseeddispersalinteractionnetwork AT piresmathiasm speciestraitsandinteractionrulesshapeaspeciesrichseeddispersalinteractionnetwork AT donatticamilai speciestraitsandinteractionrulesshapeaspeciesrichseeddispersalinteractionnetwork AT guimaraespaulor speciestraitsandinteractionrulesshapeaspeciesrichseeddispersalinteractionnetwork AT dirzorodolfo speciestraitsandinteractionrulesshapeaspeciesrichseeddispersalinteractionnetwork |