Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
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Negative density dependence characterizes mutualistic interactions between birds and fruiting plants across latitudes

Tomás A. Carlo

Tomás A. Carlo

The Pennsylvania State University Biology Department & Ecology Program, University Park, State College, PA 16802, USA

[email protected]

Contribution: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing

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João Vitor S. Messeder

João Vitor S. Messeder

The Pennsylvania State University Biology Department & Ecology Program, University Park, State College, PA 16802, USA

Contribution: Data curation, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing – review and editing

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Wálter D. Espíndola

Wálter D. Espíndola

The Pennsylvania State University Biology Department & Ecology Program, University Park, State College, PA 16802, USA

Museo de Historia Natural y Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru

Contribution: Investigation

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Benjamin S. Vizzachero

Benjamin S. Vizzachero

The Pennsylvania State University Biology Department & Ecology Program, University Park, State College, PA 16802, USA

Contribution: Investigation

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Brady W. Boyer

Brady W. Boyer

The Pennsylvania State University Biology Department & Ecology Program, University Park, State College, PA 16802, USA

Contribution: Investigation

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Jacqueline Hernández-Mejía

Jacqueline Hernández-Mejía

Museo de Historia Natural y Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru

Contribution: Investigation

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E. Adrián Torres-Páucar

E. Adrián Torres-Páucar

Museo de Historia Natural y Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru

Contribution: Investigation

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Antonio Fontanella

Antonio Fontanella

Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, Instituto de Biociências de Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil

Contribution: Investigation

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Marco A. Pizo

Marco A. Pizo

Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, Instituto de Biociências de Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil

Contribution: Investigation, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review and editing

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Guillermo Amico

Guillermo Amico

Grupo de Ecología Cuantitativa, INIBIOMA-CONICET, Universidad Nacional del Comahue,Quintral 1250, San Carlos De Bariloche, Rio Negro, Argentina

Contribution: Investigation, Resources, Supervision

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Letty Salinas

Letty Salinas

Museo de Historia Natural y Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru

Contribution: Investigation, Resources, Supervision

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César Arana

César Arana

Museo de Historia Natural y Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru

Contribution: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – review and editing

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Teresa Morán-López

Teresa Morán-López

Grupo de Ecología Cuantitativa, INIBIOMA-CONICET, Universidad Nacional del Comahue,Quintral 1250, San Carlos De Bariloche, Rio Negro, Argentina

Departamento de Biología de Organismos y Sistemas, Universidad de Oviedo and Instituto Mixto de Investigación en Biodiversidad, Universidad de Oviedo-CSIC-Principado de Asturias, Oviedo y Mieres, Asturias, España

Contribution: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – review and editing

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Juan M. Morales

Juan M. Morales

Grupo de Ecología Cuantitativa, INIBIOMA-CONICET, Universidad Nacional del Comahue,Quintral 1250, San Carlos De Bariloche, Rio Negro, Argentina

School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow, University Avenue, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK

Contribution: Data curation, Investigation, Project administration, Resources, Supervision

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    Negative density dependence (NDD) in biotic interactions of interference such as plant–plant competition, granivory and herbivory are well-documented mechanisms that promote species’ coexistence in diverse plant communities worldwide. Here, we investigated the generality of a novel type of NDD mechanism that operates through the mutualistic interactions of frugivory and seed dispersal among fruit-eating birds and plants. By sampling community-wide frugivory interactions at high spatial and temporal resolution in Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Peru, Brazil and Argentina, we evaluated whether interaction frequencies between birds and fruit resources occurred more often (selection), as expected, or below expectations (under-utilization) set by the relative fruit abundance of the fruit resources of each plant species. Our models considered the influence of temporal scales of fruit availability and bird phylogeny and diets, revealing that NDD characterizes frugivory across communities. Irrespective of taxa or dietary guild, birds tended to select fruits of plant species that were proportionally rare in their communities, or that became rare following phenological fluctuations, while they mostly under-utilized abundant fruit resources. Our results demonstrate that negative density-dependence in frugivore–plant interactions provides a strong equalizing mechanism for the dispersal processes of fleshy-fruited plant species in temperate and tropical communities, likely contributing to building and sustaining plant diversity.

    This article is part of the theme issue 'Diversitydependence of dispersal: interspecific interactions determine spatial dynamics'.

    Footnotes

    Electronic supplementary material is available online at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.7249516.

    One contribution of 16 to a theme issue ‘Diversity-dependence of dispersal: interspecific interactions determine spatial dynamics’.

    References