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Seed dispersal by macaws shapes the landscape of an Amazonian ecosystem

Seed dispersal is one of the most studied plant–animal mutualisms. It has been proposed that the dispersal of many large-seeded plants from Neotropical forests was primarily conducted by extinct megafauna, and currently by livestock. Parrots can transport large fruits using their beaks, but have bee...

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Autores principales: Baños-Villalba, Adrián, Blanco, Guillermo, Díaz-Luque, José A., Dénes, Francisco V., Hiraldo, Fernando, Tella, José L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5547140/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28785083
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-07697-5
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author Baños-Villalba, Adrián
Blanco, Guillermo
Díaz-Luque, José A.
Dénes, Francisco V.
Hiraldo, Fernando
Tella, José L.
author_facet Baños-Villalba, Adrián
Blanco, Guillermo
Díaz-Luque, José A.
Dénes, Francisco V.
Hiraldo, Fernando
Tella, José L.
author_sort Baños-Villalba, Adrián
collection PubMed
description Seed dispersal is one of the most studied plant–animal mutualisms. It has been proposed that the dispersal of many large-seeded plants from Neotropical forests was primarily conducted by extinct megafauna, and currently by livestock. Parrots can transport large fruits using their beaks, but have been overlooked as seed dispersers. We demonstrate that three macaws (Ara ararauna, A. glaucogularis and A. severus) are the main dispersers of the large-seeded motacú palm Attalea princeps, which is the biomass-dominant tree in the Bolivian Amazonian savannas. Macaws dispersed fruits at high rates (75–100% of fruits) to distant (up to 1200 m) perching trees, where they consumed the pulp and discarded entire seeds, contributing to forest regeneration and connectivity between distant forests islands. The spatial distribution of immature palms was positively associated to the proximity to macaws’ perching trees and negatively to the proximity to cattle paths. The disperser role of livestock, presumably a substitute for extinct megafauna, had little effect due to soil compaction, trampling and herbivory. Our results underscore the importance of macaws as legitimate, primary dispersers of large-seeded plants at long distances and, specifically, their key role in shaping the landscape structure and functioning of this Amazonian biome.
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spelling pubmed-55471402017-08-09 Seed dispersal by macaws shapes the landscape of an Amazonian ecosystem Baños-Villalba, Adrián Blanco, Guillermo Díaz-Luque, José A. Dénes, Francisco V. Hiraldo, Fernando Tella, José L. Sci Rep Article Seed dispersal is one of the most studied plant–animal mutualisms. It has been proposed that the dispersal of many large-seeded plants from Neotropical forests was primarily conducted by extinct megafauna, and currently by livestock. Parrots can transport large fruits using their beaks, but have been overlooked as seed dispersers. We demonstrate that three macaws (Ara ararauna, A. glaucogularis and A. severus) are the main dispersers of the large-seeded motacú palm Attalea princeps, which is the biomass-dominant tree in the Bolivian Amazonian savannas. Macaws dispersed fruits at high rates (75–100% of fruits) to distant (up to 1200 m) perching trees, where they consumed the pulp and discarded entire seeds, contributing to forest regeneration and connectivity between distant forests islands. The spatial distribution of immature palms was positively associated to the proximity to macaws’ perching trees and negatively to the proximity to cattle paths. The disperser role of livestock, presumably a substitute for extinct megafauna, had little effect due to soil compaction, trampling and herbivory. Our results underscore the importance of macaws as legitimate, primary dispersers of large-seeded plants at long distances and, specifically, their key role in shaping the landscape structure and functioning of this Amazonian biome. Nature Publishing Group UK 2017-08-07 /pmc/articles/PMC5547140/ /pubmed/28785083 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-07697-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Baños-Villalba, Adrián
Blanco, Guillermo
Díaz-Luque, José A.
Dénes, Francisco V.
Hiraldo, Fernando
Tella, José L.
Seed dispersal by macaws shapes the landscape of an Amazonian ecosystem
title Seed dispersal by macaws shapes the landscape of an Amazonian ecosystem
title_full Seed dispersal by macaws shapes the landscape of an Amazonian ecosystem
title_fullStr Seed dispersal by macaws shapes the landscape of an Amazonian ecosystem
title_full_unstemmed Seed dispersal by macaws shapes the landscape of an Amazonian ecosystem
title_short Seed dispersal by macaws shapes the landscape of an Amazonian ecosystem
title_sort seed dispersal by macaws shapes the landscape of an amazonian ecosystem
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5547140/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28785083
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-07697-5
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