Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Seed dispersal influences plant diversity and distribution, and animals are the major vector of dispersal in the world's most biodiverse ecosystems.Defaunation occurring at the global scale threatens a pervasive disruption of seed dispersal mutualisms.Understanding the scope of this problem and developing predictions for the impact of seed disperser loss on plant diversity requires knowledge of the ways in which dispersers benefit their plant mutualists and how the loss of these benefits influence plant population dynamics.The first chapter explores novel benefits of seed dispersal in a wild chili from Bolivia caused by the reduction of antagonistic species interactions via gut-passage by avian frugivores.The second chapter measures how movement away from parent plants influences species interactions for three tree species in the Mariana Islands, assessing the source of distance-dependent mortality.The third chapter quantifies demographic impacts of density-dependent mortality in the forest at Barro Colorado Island, Panamá.The last chapter uses network concepts and information of the benefits of mutualisms to improve coextinction predictions within plant-animal mutualistic networks.
Author: Evan C. Fricke
Language: English
Topic: Plant and animal studies
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Life on land
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2598158341