Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T18:51:27.216Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fruit-eating birds in experimental plantings in southern Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2016

Henry F. Howe
Henry F. Howe*
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences (mc 066), University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, llinois 60607, USA
*
*Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Maintenance of biodiversity in tropical agrarian landscapes is challenging in the face of anthropomorphic simplification of habitats. As part of an experiment testing influences of planting treatment on tree recruitment in southern Mexico, counts of bird species were made over 10 years in twenty-four 30 × 30-m fenced plots in over-grazed pasture. Plots were planted with native tree species or left as unplanted controls in 2006. Annual censuses of birds in the plots from 2007–2016 indicated statistically significant increases in the number of fruit-eating species and individuals as vegetation matured, but increases in non-frugivorous species and individuals over the decade were not significant. Among four species of planted animal-dispersed trees that bore fruit during this time, Cecropia obtusifolia consistently produced substantial crops after 2009. In 2015, all 53 planted or passively recruited female trees of mature size of this species bore fruit. The summed body masses of fruit-eating birds in each of 24 plots were significantly correlated with rank order of available fruit per plot. Differential use of habitat patches in an agrarian landscape suggested substantial value to frugivores, but less to non-frugivorous birds than expected.

Keywords

Cecropiafield experimentfrugivoreNeotropicstropical rain forest
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 83 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

ALVAREZ-BUYLLA, E. R. & MARTÍNEZ-RAMOS, M. 1992. Demography and allometry of Cecropia obtusifolia, a neotropical pioneer tree – an evaluation of the climax-pioneer paradigm for tropical rain forests. Journal of Ecology 80:275–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BIBBY, C. J., BURGESS, N. D., HILL, D. A. & MUSTOE, S. H. 2000. Bird census techniques. (Second edition). Academic Press, London. 257 pp.Google Scholar
CARLO, T. A. & MORALES, W. M. 2016. Generalist birds promote tropical forest regeneration and increase plant diversity via rare-biased seed dispersal. Ecology 97:1819–1831.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
CATTERALL, C. P., FREEMAN, A. N. D., KANOWSKI, J. & FREEBODY, K. 2012. Can active restoration of tropical rainforest rescue biodiversity? A case with bird Community indicators. Biological Conservation 146:53–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
COATES-ESTRADA, R. & ESTRADA, A. 1988. Frugivory and seed dispersal in Cymbopetalum baillonii (Annonaceae) at Los Tuxtlas, Mexico. Journal of Tropical Ecology 4:157–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DE BONILLA, E. P. D., LEÓN-CORTÉS, J. L. & RANGEL-SALAZAR, J. L. 2012. Diversity of bird feeding guilds in relation to habitat heterogeneity and land-use cover in a human-modified landscape in southern Mexico. Journal of Tropical Ecology 28:369–376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DE LA PEÑA-DOMENE, M., MARTÍNEZ-GARZA, C. & HOWE, H. F. 2013. Early recruitment dynamics in tropical restoration. Ecological Applications 23:1124–1134.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DE LA PEÑA-DOMENE, M., MARTÍNEZ-GARZA, C., PALMAS-PÉREZ, S., RIVAS-ALONSO, E. & HOWE, H. F. 2014. Roles of birds and bats in early tropical-forest restoration. PloS ONE 98:e104656.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DE LA PEÑA-DOMENE, M., MINOR, E. S. & HOWE, H. F. 2016. Restored connectivity facilitates recruitment by an endemic large-seeded tree in a fragmented tropical landscape. Ecology 97:2511–2517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DUNNING, J. B. 2013. CRC handbook of avian body masses. (Second edition). CRC Press, Boca Raton. 655 pp.Google Scholar
ELLIOTT, S., BLAKESLEY, D. & HARDWICK, K. 2013. Restoring tropical forests: a practical guide. Kew Publishing, Kew. 354 pp.Google Scholar
ESTRADA, A., COATES-ESTRADA, R. & VAZQUEZ-YANES, C. 1984. Observations on fruiting and dispersers of Cecropia obtusifolia at Los Tuxtlas, Mexico. Biotropica 16:315–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ESTRADA, A., COATES-ESTRADA, R. & MERRIT, D. A. 1997. Anthropogenic landscape changes and avian diversity at Los Tuxtlas, Mexico. Biodiversity and Conservation 6:19–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FLEMING, T. H., WILLIAMS, C. F., BONACCORSO, F. J. & HERBST, L. H. 1985. Phenology, seed dispersal, and colonization in Muntingia calabura, a neotropical pioneer tree. American Journal of Botany 72:383–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GARCÍA, D. & ORTIZ-PULIDO, R. 2004. Patterns of resource tracking by avian frugivores at multiple scales: two case studies on discordance among scales. Ecography 27:187–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GUEVARA, S. & LABORDE, J. 1993. Monitoring seed dispersal at isolated standing trees in tropical pastures: consequences for local species availability. Vegetatio 107/108:319–338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HOWE, H. F. 2016. Making dispersal syndromes and networks useful in tropical conservation and restoration. Global Ecology and Conservation 6:152–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HOWE, H. F. & SMALLWOOD, J. 1982. Ecology of seed dispersal. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 13:201–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
JANZEN, D. H. 1981. Ficus ovalis seed predation by an orange-chinned parakeet (Brotogeris jugularis) in Costa Rica. Auk 98:841–844.Google Scholar
KANTAK, G. E. 1979. Observations on some fruit-eating birds in Mexico. Auk 96: 183–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LEHOUCK, V., SPANHOVE, T., VANGESTEL, C., CORDEIRO, N. J. & LENS, L. 2009. Does landscape structure affect resource tracking by avian frugivores in a fragmented Afrotropical forest? Ecography 32:789–799.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MARTÍNEZ-GARZA, C., BONGERS, F. & POORTER, L. 2013a. Are functional traits good predictors of species performance in restoration plantings in tropical abandoned pastures? Forest Ecology and Management 303:35–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MARTÍNEZ-GARZA, C., TOBON, W., CAMPO, J. & HOWE, H. F. 2013b. Drought mortality of tree seedlings in an eroded tropical pasture. Land Degradation and Development 24:287–295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MCCONKEY, K. R., PRASAD, S., CORLETT, R. T., CAMPOS-ARCEIZ, A., BRODIE, J. F., ROGERS, H. & SANTAMARIA, L. 2012. Seed dispersal in changing landscapes. Biological Conservation 146:1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MCDIARMID, R. W., RICKLEFS, R. E. & FOSTER, M. S. 1977. Dispersal of Stemmadenia donnell-smithii Apocynaceae by birds. Biotropica 9:9–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ORTIZ-PULIDO, R. 2000. Abundance of frugivorous birds and richness of fruit resource: is there a temporal relationship? Caldasia 22:93–107.Google Scholar
POPOCA-ORTEGA, L. I. 2016. Lluvia de semillas en parcelas de restauración ecológica en la selva tropical de Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, México. Tesis de Licenciatura, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos. Cuernavaca, Morelos, México. 134 pp.Google Scholar
REGAL, P. J. 1977. Ecology and evolution of flowering plant dominance. Science 196:622–629.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
REID, J. L., MENDENHALL, C. D., ROSALES, A., ZAHAWI, R. A. & HOLL, K. D. 2014. Landscape context mediates avian habitat choice in tropical forest restoration. PloS ONE 93:e90573.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RUSSO, S., PORTNOY, S. & AUGSPURGER, C. K. 2006. Incorporating animal behavior into seed dispersal models: implications for seed shadows. Ecology 87:3160–3174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
SCHUPP, E. W., JORDANO, P. & GOMEZ, J. M. 2010. Seed dispersal effectiveness revisited: a conceptual review. New Phytologist 188:333–353.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
SCOTT, P. E. & MARTIN, R. F. 1984. Avian consumers of Bursera, Ficus, and Ehretia fruit in Yucatan. Biotropica 16:319–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SKUTCH, A. F. 1980. Arils as food of tropical American birds. Condor 82:31–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WILMAN, H., BELMAKER, J., SIMPSON, J. J., DE LA ROSA, C., RIVADENEIRA, M. M., & JETZ, W. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar