Drivers of bat roles in Neotropical seed dispersal networks: abundance is more important than functional traits
- 13 May 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Oecologia
- Vol. 193 (1), 189-198
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04662-4
Abstract
While functional traits can facilitate or constrain interactions between pair of species in ecological communities, relative abundances regulate the probabilities of encounter among individuals. However, the relative importance of traits and relative abundances for the role species play in seed dispersion networks remains poorly explored. Here, we analyzed 20 Neotropical seed dispersal networks distributed from Mexico to southeastern Brazil to evaluate how relative abundance and functional traits influence bat species’ roles in seed dispersal networks. We tested how bat relative abundance and traits relate to species contribution to between-module (c metric) and within-module connectivity (z metric) and their position and potential to mediate indirect effects between species (betweenness centrality). Our results indicate that relative abundance is the main determinant of the role bats play in the networks, while traits such as aspect ratio show modest yet statistically significant importance in predicting specific roles. Moreover, all seed dispersal networks presented two or three superabundant obligatory frugivore species that interacted with a high number of plants. The modest influence of the functional traits on species’ roles is likely related to the low variation of morphological traits related to foraging ecology, which reduces the chances of morphological mismatching between consumers and resources in the system. In this scenario, abundant bats have higher chances of encountering resources and being capable of consuming them which leads such species to play critical roles in the community by acting as module hubs and network connectors.Keywords
This publication has 50 references indexed in Scilit:
- A review of species role concepts in food websFood Webs, 2018
- Bat guilds, a concept to classify the highly diverse foraging and echolocation behaviors of microchiropteran batsFrontiers in Physiology, 2013
- Analysis of a hyper-diverse seed dispersal network: modularity and underlying mechanismsEcology Letters, 2011
- Rareness and specialization in plant–pollinator networksEcology, 2011
- Pollination networks of oil‐flowers: a tiny world within the smallest of all worldsJournal of Animal Ecology, 2009
- Generalized linear mixed models: a practical guide for ecology and evolutionTrends in Ecology & Evolution, 2009
- Indices, Graphs and Null Models: Analyzing Bipartite Ecological NetworksThe Open Ecology Journal, 2009
- Body size predicts degree in ant–plant mutualistic networksFunctional Ecology, 2009
- Plant-Animal Mutualistic Networks: The Architecture of BiodiversityAnnual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 2007
- Bat Species Composition in Three Localities in the Amazon BasinStudies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment, 2001