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Abstract
Plant-frugivore networks play a key role in the regeneration of sub-tropical forest ecosystems. However, information about the impact of habitat characteristics on plant-frugivore networks in fragmented forests is scarce. We investigated the importance of fruit abundance, fruiting plant species richness and canopy cover within habitat fragments for the structure and robustness of plant-frugivore networks in a mosaic forest landscape of South Africa. In total, 53 avian species were involved in fruit removal of 31 fleshy-fruiting plant species. Species specialisation was always higher for plants than for frugivores. Both species and network-level specialisation increased with increasing fruit abundance and decreased with increasing fruiting plant species richness and canopy cover within fragments. Interaction diversity was unaffected by fruit abundance and canopy cover, but increased slightly with increasing fruiting plant species richness. These findings suggest that especially the availability of resources is an important determinant of the structure of plant-frugivore networks in a fragmented forest landscape.
Highlights
Increasing impact of human land-use changes the structure and composition of ecosystems across the globe [1,2]
Study Site and Design We conducted this study over two successive years, 2009/10 and 2010/11 in a heterogeneous scarp forest landscape in and around Vernon Crookes Nature Reserve (VCNR) situated on the south coast of South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Province (150– 610 m a.s.l., 30u169 S, 30u359 E)
Species specialisation further increased with increasing fruit abundance, but decreased with increasing fruiting plant species richness and canopy cover (Table 1; Table S4)
Summary
Increasing impact of human land-use changes the structure and composition of ecosystems across the globe [1,2]. Small-scale changes within remaining forest fragments may alter the environmental conditions, e.g. the availability of fruit resources or vegetation structure [4,5]. These changes may influence species diversity, and the overall functioning of forest ecosystems [1,6]. Fruit or seed-eating animals profit from this interaction in the form of nutrition. Given that the seed passes handling by frugivores intact, plants profit from the interaction through dispersal of their seeds. Plant-frugivore interactions are important in tropical and sub-tropical ecosystems as up to 90% of fleshy-fruiting plant species rely upon animal vectors to transport their propagules [9]
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