Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-vmclg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-18T21:44:57.167Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Seed predation in a human-modified tropical landscape

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2015

Jenny Zambrano ,
Rosamond Coates  and
Henry F. Howe
Jenny Zambrano*
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, 845 W. Taylor St. (M/C 066), Chicago, Illinois 60706, USA
Rosamond Coates
Affiliation:
Los Tuxtlas Tropical Biological Station, Institute of Biology, UNAM Apartado Postal 94, San Andres Tuxtla, Veracruz, CP 95701, Mexico
Henry F. Howe
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, 845 W. Taylor St. (M/C 066), Chicago, Illinois 60706, USA
*
1Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Contemporary defaunation of fragmented forests potentially alters patterns of seed predation and dispersal. Alternatively, the remaining fauna may compensate for missing animals, resulting in equivalent rates of seed dispersal and predation. In the Los Tuxtlas region of southern Mexico, populations of large terrestrial fruit-eating mammals are diminished or absent from many forest remnants. This study reports fruit removal and seed predation patterns of Poulsenia armata (Moraceae), in forest fragments and a continuous forest (LTBS). Contrary to expectation, we found no differences in seed predation (mean ± SD) between LTBS (7.2 ± 1.8 seeds per station) and forest fragments (5.6 ± 1.1). However more fruits were removed in the LTBS (11.4 ± 0.9 fruits per station) than in forest fragments (8.1 ± 0.8). Animal activity, recorded by camera traps, differed between animal guild with fewer seed dispersers in forest fragments (mean = 0.43 ± 0.02 photos wk−1) than in the LTBS (mean = 0.68 ± 0.05). Fruits and seeds attracted many species of mammal (n = 12) in both habitats, indicating substantial redundancy. Remnant forest patches in the Los Tuxtlas landscape retain great ecological value, both as refuges for mammals and habitats for trees, such as P. armata.

Keywords

defaunationfruit removalLos TuxtlasPoulsenia armataseed predation
Type
Short Communication
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 31 , Issue 4 , July 2015 , pp. 379 - 383
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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

ASQUITH, N. M., WRIGHT, S. J. & CLAUSS, M. J. 1997. Does mammal community composition control recruitment in neotropical forests? Evidence from Panama. Ecology 78:941–946.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ASQUITH, N. M., TERBORGH, J., ARNOLD, A. E. & RIVEROS, C. M. 1999. The fruits the agouti ate: Hymenaea courbaril seed fate when its disperser is absent. Journal of Tropical Ecology 15:229–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CYPHER, B. L. & CYPHER, E. A. 1999. Germination rates of tree seeds ingested by coyotes and raccoons. American Midland Naturalist 142:71–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DIRZO, R., MENDOZA, E. & ORTÍZ, P. 2007. Size-related differential seed predation in a heavily defaunated neotropical rain forest. Biotropica 39:355–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ESTRADA, A. & COATES-ESTRADA, R. 1984. Fruit eating and seed dispersal by howling monkeys (Alouatta palliata) in the tropical rain forest of Los Tuxtlas, Mexico. American Journal of Primatology 6:77–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
ESTRADA, A., COATES-ESTRADA, R. & MERITT, D. 1994. Non flying mammals and landscape changes in the tropical rain forest region of Los Tuxtlas, Mexico. Ecography 17:229–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FLORES, J. J., COATES, R. I., SÁNCHEZ-CORDERO, V. & MENDIETA, V. J. 2014. Mammíferos terrestres de la Estación de Biologia de Los Tuxtlas. Revista Digital Universitaria 4:1–10.Google Scholar
FORGET, P. M. 1990. Seed-dispersal of Vouacapoua americana (Caesalpiniaceae) by caviomorph rodents in French Guiana. Journal of Tropical Ecology 6:459–468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HOWE, H. F. & SMALLWOOD, J. 1982. Ecology of seed dispersal. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 13:201–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MARTÍNEZ-GALLARDO, R. & SÁNCHEZ-CORDERO, V. 1993. Dietary value of fruits and seeds to spiny pocket mice, Heteromys desmarestianus (Heteromyidae). Journal of Mammalogy 74:436–442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MARTÍNEZ-GALLARDO, R. & SÁNCHEZ-CORDERO, V. 1997. Historia natural de algunas especies de mamiferos de la region de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico. Pp. 591–609 in Gonzalez, E., Dirzo, R. & Vogt, R. (eds.). Historial natural de los Tuxtlas. Instituto de Biologia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico.Google Scholar
MEDELLIN, R. A. 1994. Seed dispersal of Cecropia obtusifolia by two species of Opposums in the Selva Lacandona, Chiapas, Mexico. Biotropica 26:400–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
REID, F. 1997. A field guide to the mammals of Central America and Southeast Mexico. Oxford University Press, New York. 334 pp.Google Scholar
SÁNCHEZ-CORDERO, V. & MARTÍNEZ-GALLARDO, R. 1998. Postdispersal fruit and seed removal by forest-dwelling rodents in a lowland rainforest in Mexico. Journal of Tropical Ecology 14:139–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SETHI, P. & HOWE, H. F. 2009. Recruitment of hornbill dispersed trees in hunted and logged forests of the Indian Eastern Himalaya. Conservation Biology 23:710–718.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
TOBLER, M. W, CARRILLO-PERCASTEGUI, S. E., LEITE, P. R., MARES, R. & POWELL, G. 2008. An evaluation of camera traps for inventorying large and medium-sized terrestrial rainforest mammals. Animal Conservation 11:169–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TREJO-PÉREZ, L. 1976. Diseminación de semillas por aves en “Los Tuxtlas”. Pp. 676 in Gomez-Pompa, A. & Vázquez -Yanes, C. (eds.). Regeneración de Selvas. Continental, Mexico.Google Scholar
TURNER, I. M. 1996. Species loss in fragments of tropical rain forest: a review of the evidence. Journal of Applied Ecology 33:200–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VÁZQUEZ-YANES, C., OROZCO, A., FRANÇOIS, G. & TREJO, L. 1975. Observations on seed dispersal by bats in a tropical humid region in Veracruz, Mexico. Biotropica 7:73–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WILLSON, M. F. 1993. Mammals as seed-dispersal mutualists in North America. Oikos 67:159–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WILSON, D. E. & REEDER, D. A. M. 1993. Mammals species of the world: a taxonomic and geographic reference. (Second edition). Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC. 1207 pp.Google Scholar
ZAMBRANO, J., COATES, R. & HOWE, H. F. 2014. Effects of forest fragmentation on the recruitment success of the tropical tree Poulsenia armata at Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico. Journal of Tropical Ecology 30:209–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar