Bat-fruit interactions are more specialized in shaded-coffee plantations than in tropical mountain cloud forest fragments.

Jesús R. Hernández-Montero,Romeo A. Saldaña-Vázquez,Vinicio J. Sosa,Jorge Galindo-González,Danilo Russo

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0126084

Jesús R. Hernández-Montero, Romeo A. Saldaña-Vázquez + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0126084

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Abstract

Forest disturbance causes specialization of plant-frugivore networks and jeopardizes mutualistic interactions through reduction of ecological redundancy. To evaluate how simplification of a forest into an agroecosystem affects plant-disperser mutualistic interactions, we compared bat-fruit interaction indexes of specialization in tropical montane cloud forest fragments (TMCF) and shaded-coffee plantations (SCP). Bat-fruit interactions were surveyed by collection of bat fecal samples. Bat-fruit interactions were more specialized in SCP (mean H2 ' = 0.55) compared to TMCF fragments (mean H2 ' = 0.27), and were negatively correlated to bat abundance in SCP (R = -0.35). The number of shared plant species was higher in the TMCF fragments (mean = 1) compared to the SCP (mean = 0.51) and this was positively correlated to the abundance of frugivorous bats (R= 0.79). The higher specialization in SCP could be explained by lower bat abundance and lower diet overlap among bats. Coffee farmers and conservation policy makers must increase the proportion of land assigned to TMCF within agroecosystem landscapes in order to conserve frugivorous bats and their invaluable seed dispersal service.

Highlights

Seed dispersal by animals constitutes an important ecosystem service in natural forests and agroecosystems [1]
We evaluated the dependency of specialization indexes on frugivorous bat abundance using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) procedures
We hypothesized that specialization of bat-fruit interactions is affected by the lower chiropterochoric plant and bat abundance in shaded-coffee plantations (SCP)

Summary

Introduction

Seed dispersal by animals constitutes an important ecosystem service in natural forests and agroecosystems [1]. Study of the factors that modify animal-fruit interaction patterns is important to the conservation of ecosystem functionality [2]. Network theory allows us to understand mutualistic interactions using different indices that describe the structure of interactions [3]. The specialization (H2') index is one of the main informative network indices, because is related to the complementarity of mutualistic interactions and describes the stability of the network by interaction redundancy [4].

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