anystyle 1.1.0 → 1.2.0

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@@ -25,18 +25,23 @@ module AnyStyle
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  scrub(transliterate(string)).downcase
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  end
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+ def nnum(string, symbol = '#')
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+ string.unicode_normalize.gsub(/\d/, symbol)
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+ end
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+
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  def page_break?(string)
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  string =~ /\f/
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  end
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  def display_width(string)
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- display_chars(string).rstrip.length
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+ display_chars(string).length
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  end
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  def display_chars(string)
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  string
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  .gsub(/\p{Mn}|\p{Me}|\p{Cc}/, '')
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  .gsub(/\p{Zs}/, ' ')
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+ .rstrip
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  end
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  def count(string, pattern)
@@ -44,7 +49,7 @@ module AnyStyle
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  end
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  def indent(token)
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- display_chars(token).rstrip[/^(\s*)/].length
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+ display_chars(token)[/^(\s*)/].length
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  end
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  def strip_html(string)
@@ -53,11 +58,13 @@ module AnyStyle
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  end
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  end
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- module PdfUtils
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+ module PDFUtils
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  module_function
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- def pdf_to_text(path, layout: true)
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- %x{pdftotext #{layout ? ' -layout' : ''} -eol unix -q "#{path}" -}
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+ def pdf_to_text(path, **opts)
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+ text = %x{pdftotext #{pdf_opts(path, **opts).join(' ')} "#{path}" -}
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+ raise "pdftotext failed with error code #{$?.exitstatus}" unless $?.success?
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+ text.force_encoding(opts[:encoding] || 'UTF-8')
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  end
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  def pdf_info(path)
@@ -69,6 +76,43 @@ module AnyStyle
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  def pdf_meta(path)
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  %x{pdfinfo -meta -isodates "#{path}"}
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  end
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+
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+ def pdf_page_size(path)
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+ pdf_info(path)['Page size'].scan(/\d+/)[0, 2].map(&:to_i)
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+ end
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+
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+ private
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+
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+ def pdf_opts(path, layout: true, encoding: 'UTF-8', **opts)
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+ [
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+ layout ? '-layout' : '',
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+ opts[:crop] ? pdf_crop(path, opts[:crop]) : '',
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+ '-eol unix',
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+ "-enc #{encoding}",
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+ '-q'
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+ ]
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+ end
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+
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+ def pdf_crop(path, args)
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+ (x, y, w, h) = case args.length
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+ when 1
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+ [args[0], args[0], -args[0], -args[0]]
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+ when 2
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+ [args[0], args[1], -args[0], -args[1]]
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+ when 4
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+ args
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+ else
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+ raise "invalid crop option: #{args}"
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+ end
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+
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+ if w < 0 || h < 0
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+ (width, height) = pdf_page_size(path)
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+ w = width - x + w if w < 0
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+ h = height - y + h if h < 0
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+ end
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+
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+ "-x #{x} -y #{y} -W #{w} -H #{h}"
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+ end
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  end
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  extend Utils
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
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  module AnyStyle
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- VERSION = '1.1.0'.freeze
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+ VERSION = '1.2.0'.freeze
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  end
@@ -241,7 +241,7 @@ blank |
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  |
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  |
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  meta | ix
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- | Chapter 1
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+ title | Chapter 1
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  blank |
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  title | Introduction
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  blank |
@@ -261,8 +261,8 @@ blank |
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  text | The reason Bernanke took such a public stand defending the Fed’s independence
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  | is simple: central bank independence is widely seen as a necessary condition for the
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  | attainment of economic and financial stability. Thus, Bernanke and central bankers
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- | 1
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- | Text of full statement is available at http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/
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+ meta | 1
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+ text | Text of full statement is available at http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/
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  | bernanke20100203a.htm.
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  blank |
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  |
@@ -293,8 +293,8 @@ text | everywhere have a substantial interest in promoting the idea tha
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  | thereby ignoring the crucial role that central banks play as lenders of last resort.
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  | Other studies have taken a more targeted approach in studying the impact of
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  | politics on policymaking at the Fed by asking whether or not monetary policy becomes
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- | 2
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- | For a review of the literature investigating this relationship, see Eijffinger and de Haan (1996).
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+ meta | 2
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+ text | For a review of the literature investigating this relationship, see Eijffinger and de Haan (1996).
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  | Bade and Parkin (1988), Alesina (1988), Grilli, Masciandaro and Tabellini (1991), Cukierman, Web
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  | and Neyapti (1992), Alesina and Summers (1993), Eijffinger, Van Rooij and Schaling (1996), Berger,
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  | De Haan and Eijffinger (2001), and Keefer and Stasavage (2003), among others, provide additional
@@ -389,7 +389,7 @@ blank |
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  text | to remain insulated from external political pressure is imperfect.
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  | I conclude in Chapter 5 by discussing the implications of my findings and mapping
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  | out some research projects that are natural extensions of this work.
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- meta | Chapter 2
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+ title | Chapter 2
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  blank |
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  title | The Politics Behind the Federal
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  | Reserve’s Structure
@@ -1208,8 +1208,8 @@ text | Paired Paired
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  | Republican 6 34 0 3 1 44
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  | Progressive 1 0 0 0 0 1
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  | Total 54 34 3 3 1 95
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- | 19
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- | This small group of midwesterners, led by Lindberg, opposed any sort of central bank.
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+ meta | 19
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+ text | This small group of midwesterners, led by Lindberg, opposed any sort of central bank.
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  meta | CHAPTER 2. THE POLITICS BEHIND THE FED’S STRUCTURE 35
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  blank |
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  |
@@ -2744,9 +2744,9 @@ text | Table 2.11: Partisan Preferences in 19
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  | R2 Edward non-eastern B Horizontal cost of moving away from their
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  | Vreeland bankers desired level of centralization
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  | Key: A = politicized central bank
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- meta | B = decentralized, private bank with autonomous branches
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+ | B = decentralized, private bank with autonomous branches
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  | C = centralized bank controlled by Wall Street
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- | CHAPTER 2. THE POLITICS BEHIND THE FED’S STRUCTURE 86
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+ meta | CHAPTER 2. THE POLITICS BEHIND THE FED’S STRUCTURE 86
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  blank |
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  |
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  |
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  |
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  text | Figure 2.14: Could the Banking Act have Passed Had the Composition of Congress
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  | Not Changed Between 1913 and 1935?
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- meta | Chapter 3
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+ title | Chapter 3
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  blank |
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  title | The Fed as a Political Agent: How
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  | Partisan Central Bankers Allow
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  |
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  title | 3.2 Do We Know if There is a Political Business
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  blank |
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- text | Cycle in Monetary Policy?
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+ title | Cycle in Monetary Policy?
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  blank |
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  text | Most studies assessing the presence of a political business cycle in monetary policy
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  | have decided against pursuing this more fine-grained, individual-level analysis and
@@ -3628,8 +3628,8 @@ text | partisan identity by using information from press reports at the
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  | four are Independents, and five are Republicans. The remaining 15 are not able to be
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  | identified, since they either are (or were) not a registered voter or are not included in
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  | the Catalist voter file that I have access to through my university’s subscription.34
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- | 33
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- | Other studies using Catalist for data on voter registrations include Ansolabehere and Hersh
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+ meta | 33
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+ text | Other studies using Catalist for data on voter registrations include Ansolabehere and Hersh
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  | (2012), Hersh and Nall (2013), and Peterson (2014).
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  meta | 34
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  text | The subscription is for only a subset of the entire Catalist national voter file.
@@ -4363,7 +4363,7 @@ meta | Note: p<0.1; p<0
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  blank |
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  |
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  text | Figure 3.5: Power Analysis: Democratic Elections’ Effect on FOMC Republicans
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- meta | Chapter 4
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+ title | Chapter 4
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  blank |
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  title | The Role of Politics in the Federal
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  | Reserve’s Lending during the
@@ -4874,8 +4874,8 @@ text | officials expending their legislative resources on issues unrela
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  | respondence (i.e., letters) issued between the board and Congress pertaining to the
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  | Fed’s emergency lending during the financial crisis.19
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  | The over 3,300 pages that were released included 69 letters from congresspersons
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- | 16
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- | This point is even more true if the campaign contributions are made to politicians that are never
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+ meta | 16
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+ text | This point is even more true if the campaign contributions are made to politicians that are never
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  | even elected to office. After all, a firm can make a campaign contribution for many reasons, not just
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  | to try to influence the Fed’s lending.
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  meta | 17
@@ -5891,8 +5891,8 @@ blank |
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  |
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  |
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  |
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- meta | (c) Political Entity: Letter Writers
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- | CHAPTER 4. THE ROLE OF POLITICS IN THE FED’S LENDING 184
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+ text | (c) Political Entity: Letter Writers
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+ meta | CHAPTER 4. THE ROLE OF POLITICS IN THE FED’S LENDING 184
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  blank |
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  |
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  |
@@ -5957,7 +5957,7 @@ text | Figure 4.3: Financial Covariates’ Marginal Effects on Income
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  | AIC used by Stata 3709.097 3705.628 3702.708 3705.485 3699.858 3696.849 3698.747
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  meta | CHAPTER 4. THE ROLE OF POLITICS IN THE FED’S LENDING
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  | 186
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- | Chapter 5
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+ title | Chapter 5
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  blank |
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  title | Conclusion
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  blank |
@@ -0,0 +1,3919 @@
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+ title | FUNCTIONAL TRAIT MEDIATION OF PLANT-ANIMAL INTERACTIONS:
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+ | EFFECTS OF DEFAUNATION ON PLANT FUNCTIONAL DIVERSITY IN A
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+ | NEOTROPICAL FOREST
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+ blank |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ text | A DISSERTATION
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+ | SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY
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+ | AND THE COMMITTEE ON GRADUATE STUDIES
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+ | OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY
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+ | IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
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+ | DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
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+ blank |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ text | Erin Leigh Kurten
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+ | August 2010
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+ | © 2010 by Erin Leigh Kurten. All Rights Reserved.
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+ | Re-distributed by Stanford University under license with the author.
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+ blank |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ text | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
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+ | Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
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+ | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/
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+ blank |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ text | This dissertation is online at: http://purl.stanford.edu/bb408gp7470
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+ blank |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ meta | ii
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+ text | I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate
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+ | in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
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+ blank |
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+ text | Rodolfo Dirzo, Primary Adviser
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+ blank |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ text | I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate
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+ | in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
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+ blank |
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+ text | Peter Vitousek
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+ blank |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ text | I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate
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+ | in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
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+ blank |
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+ text | David Ackerly
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+ blank |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ text | Approved for the Stanford University Committee on Graduate Studies.
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+ | Patricia J. Gumport, Vice Provost Graduate Education
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+ blank |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ text | This signature page was generated electronically upon submission of this dissertation in
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+ | electronic format. An original signed hard copy of the signature page is on file in
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+ | University Archives.
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+ blank |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ meta | iii
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+ title | Preface
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+ | Dissertation Abstract
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+ text | This dissertation examines how terrestrial vertebrates, as seed dispersers, seed
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+ | predators and herbivores, influence plant functional trait composition in tropical forests and
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+ | thereby diversity. I conducted this work in the Barro Colorado National Monument (BCNM)
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+ | in Central Panama, where a long term mammal exclosure experiment has been ongoing, and in
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+ | neighboring Parque Nacional Soberanía (PNS), which together with the BCNM forms a
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+ | defaunation gradient driven by hunting.
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+ | I first comprehensively review what is known about how the loss of vertebrates in
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+ | tropical forests alters plant-animal interactions, plant demography, and plant diversity.
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+ | Defaunation consistently lowers primary dispersal and creates a seed shadow that is more
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+ | dense around the parent tree and less dense at sites farther away. However, it also often
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+ | lowers seed predation by rodents, and as a consequence, species with rodents as seed predators
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+ | and dispersers often benefit from defaunation. While demographic and diversity responses
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+ | tend to be more mixed, a few consistent trends emerge. Community dominance tends to
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+ | increase in response to defaunation. Often, plants with particular functional traits or abiotic or
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+ | unhunted dispersal agents are favored by defaunation.
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+ | I next examined how community-level functional trait composition shifts in seedling
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+ | communities (Chapter 2) and sapling communities (Chapter 3) which have experienced
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+ | exclosure from terrestrial mammals. Seedling communities in exclosures had higher median
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+ | seed mass than paired plots open to the mammal community, but treatments did not differ in
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+ | their leaf traits (leaf mass per area and laminar toughness) or wood density. In contrast to the
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+ | seedling community, the sapling community did show significant shifts toward higher specific
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+ | leaf area and lower leaf toughness in response to herbivore exclosure, primarily due to an
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+ | increased dominance of species with those traits, and secondarily due to differences in the
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+ blank |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ meta | iv
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+ text | species present in each treatment type. These data, combined with data from PNS, also
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+ | suggest that hunting results in community mean wood density in seedling communities, due to
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+ | a disproportionate number of high wood density species relying on hunted animals for their
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+ | seed dispersal.
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+ | Finally, I investigated the seed size response to changes in mammal abundance by
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+ | measuring vertebrate seed predation rates in a protected and hunted forest (Chapter 4). I
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+ | found that in central Panama, seed mass does not correlate well with either body size of the
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+ | seed predator, or vertebrate seed predation rates. I suggest that rather than formulate seed
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+ | predation rates as a linear function of seed predator abundance, these interactions may be
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+ | better modeled as threshold-dependent processes.
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+ blank |
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+ |
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+ text | This work suggests that terrestrial vertebrates play an underappreciated role in maintaining
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+ | plant diversity and that pan-tropical levels of unsustainable hunting may indirectly lead to
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+ | losses of plant biodiversity.
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+ blank |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ meta | v
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+ title | Acknowledgments
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+ text | My deep gratitude goes to my two advisors, Rodolfo Dirzo and David Ackerly, for giving me
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+ | the flexibility and support to pursue this work. Rodolfo’s generosity as a teacher and advisor,
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+ | and his tireless contributions to teaching, research and conservation, both at Stanford and
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+ | internationally, are a great inspiration to me. I am thankful to David for graciously and
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+ | supportively allowing me to build a network of intellectual support that allowed me to
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+ | successfully complete this journey. He has also been an excellent intellectual role model for
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+ | me, challenging me to grapple with complexity and nuance and to confront problems from
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+ | new perspectives.
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+ | Joe Wright has been a generous and supportive mentor and collaborator throughout
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+ | my time at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and some of this work would not have
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+ | been possible without his contributions. Peter Vitousek contributed many insightful
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+ | suggestions throughout the course of this work as a committee member, and his service
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+ | activities, from facilitating collaboration among scientists in Hawaii, to the First Nations’
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+ | Futures Program, have also inspired me. I also thank Fio Micheli for her enthusiasm as a
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+ | committee member and for helping me frame my work in a broader context. Walter Carson
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+ | very generously permitted me to work on the long-term mammal exclosure experiment he
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+ | established in the Barro Colorado National Monument in Panama and shared with me his
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+ | long-term datasets.
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+ | The communities at Stanford, Berkeley and STRI were essential in shaping my
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+ | graduate school experience. At Stanford, Will Cornwell, Nathan Kraft, Virginia Maztek,
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+ | Steve Allison, Stephen Porder, Katie Amatangelo, Jen Funk, Camila Donatti, and Mauro
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+ | Galetti provided helpful feedback and support throughout the various stages of my work.
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+ | Doug Turner was an essential help in analyzing leaf nutrients, both for chapter three, and work
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+ | not included in this thesis. Alex Royo, Allen Herre, Scott Magnan, Liza Comita, Mike Tobin,
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+ blank |
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+ |
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+ meta | vi
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+ text | Patrick Jansen, Noelle Beckman, Roland Kays, Jackie Willis, Stephan Schnitzer generously
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+ | shared their advice and knowledge of the field site with me, improving the feasibility and
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+ | execution of this work.
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+ | Many thanks go to the botanists at BCI. Without their assistance, this work would not
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+ | have been possible. Andrés Hernández, Oldemar Valdes, David Brassfield, and Osvaldo
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+ | Calderón were always happy to help me identify whatever leaf, fruit, seed, or flower I
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+ | brought to their office. Andrés and Oldemar in particular taught me most of what I know
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+ | about the BCI flora.
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+ | Many paid and volunteer field and lab assistants helped to make this work possible.
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+ | Lissie Jiménez helped immensely with the collection and processing of the thousands of
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+ | leaves collected for Chapter three. Ana Patricia Calderón and Rousmery Bethancourt
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+ | contributed many early mornings conducting mammal transect surveys. Clare Sherman was
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+ | such a dedicated help in the lab and fieldwork for chapter 4, that I sometimes had to remind
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+ | her to take a break and have some fun. Susan Rebellon helped with the pilot studies for
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+ | chapter four, and also with leaf sample processing at Stanford. Gaspar Bruner, Karen
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+ | Kapheim, Adam Roddy, and David Bethancourt, helped me recover (most of) my leaf
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+ | samples after they were destroyed in a freezer accident.
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+ | I would also like to thank staff at Stanford and STRI who helped make the logistical
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+ | aspects of this work easier. The competence of Pam Hung, Oris Acevedo, Belkys Jiménez,
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+ | Orelis Arosemana, and Marcela Paz made them a pleasure to work with. The Falconer library
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+ | and copy staff, as well as Allen Smith, did their best to get me the literature I needed, despite
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+ | STRI’s rigorous firewall. Valerie Kiszka and Jennifer Mason helped with countless
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+ | administrative tasks and advice during my time as a student at Stanford.
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+ blank |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ meta | vii
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+ title | Contents
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+ text | Preface iv
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+ | Acknowledgements vi
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+ | List of tables ix
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+ | List of figures x
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+ blank |
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+ text | Introduction………………………………………………………………………... 1
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+ | 1 Contemporaneous defaunation and cascading effects on tropical forests…...… 3
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+ | Introduction…………………………………………………………………. 3
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+ | Scope of Review……………………………………………………………. 4
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+ | Methodology………………………………………………………………... 5
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+ | Plant-animal interactions………………………………………………….... 7
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+ | Seed dispersal……………………………………………………….... 7
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+ | Seed Predation………………………………………………………… 14
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+ | Herbivory & Trampling…………………………………………….… 17
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+ | Plant Demography……………………………………………………….…. 17
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+ | Recruitment…………………………………………………………… 17
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+ | Seedling survival……………………………………………………… 19
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+ | Standing abundance……………………………………………….….. 20
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+ | Linking Dispersal and Seedling Recruitment………………………… 22
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+ | Community Diversity….…………………………………………………… 24
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+ | Seedling density………………………………………………………. 24
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+ | Diversity……………………………………………………………… 24
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+ | Plant Functional Groups……………………………………………… 25
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+ | What is defaunation? ………………………………………………………. 27
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+ | Heterogeneity Among Studies……………………………………………… 28
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+ | Conclusions……………………………………………………………….… 29
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+ | Appendix 1.1……………………………………………………………..… 30
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+ blank |
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+ text | 2 Reduced seed dispersal as a consequence of hunting lowers community-level
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+ | wood density in a Neotropical forest ……………………………………… 35
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+ | Abstract…………………………………………………………………… 35
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+ | Introduction……………………………………………………………..…. 36
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+ blank |
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+ |
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+ meta | viii
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+ text | Methods…………………………………………………………………… 38
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+ | Results…………………………………………………………………….. 41
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+ | Discussion………………………………………………………………… 45
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+ | Acknowledgments………………………………………………………….. 49
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+ blank |
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+ text | 3 Terrestrial mammalian herbivores influence the distribution of defense and
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+ | nutrient traits in a Neotropical forest………………………………………….. 51
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+ | Abstract………………………..…………………………………………… 51
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+ | Introduction…………………………………………………………………. 52
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+ | Methods……………………..……………………………………………… 54
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+ | Results……………………..……………………………………………….. 56
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+ | Discussion……………..…………………………………………………… 61
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+ | Acknowledgments………………………………………………………….. 65
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+ blank |
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+ text | 4 Hunting does not alter seed predation rates as a function of seed size in a
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+ | Neotropical forest……………………………………………………………… 67
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+ | Abstract…………………………………………………………………..… 67
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+ | Introduction………………………………………………………………... 68
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+ | Methods…………………………………………………………………..… 72
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+ | Results………………………………………………………………………. 76
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+ | Discussion………………………………………………………………..… 81
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+ | Conclusion…………………………………………………………………... 86
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+ | Acknowledgments………………………………………………………….. 86
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+ blank |
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+ text | Bibliography………………………………………………………………………. 87
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+ blank |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ |
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+ title | List of Tables
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+ text | 3.1 The number of species and stems for which traits were measured………….. 57
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+ | 3.2 R2 values for pair-wise correlations between species mean trait values ……... 57
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+ | 3.3 Effect of species and exclosure on variation in leaf toughness……….. 61
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+ | 4.1 Mean fresh seed masses of study species……………………………... 75
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+ blank |
250
+ |
251
+ |
252
+ |
253
+ meta | ix
254
+ title | List of Figures
255
+ text | 1.1 Primary seed dispersal in defaunated sites relative to non-defaunated
256
+ | sites…………………………………………………………………… 9
257
+ | 1.2 Differences in seed caching in defaunated sites relative to non-
258
+ | defaunated sites……………………………………………………… 10
259
+ | 1.3 Changes in seedling distribution as a consequence of defaunation…… 13
260
+ | 1.4 Differences in vertebrate seed predation rates as a consequence of
261
+ | defaunation……………………………………………………………. 16
262
+ | 1.5 Differences in invertebrate seed predation rates as a consequence of
263
+ | defaunation……………………………………………………………. 17
264
+ | 1.6 Plant recruitment responses to defaunation for seedlings and saplings.. 19
265
+ | 1.7 Seedling survival in defaunated sites relative to non-defaunated sites.. 20
266
+ | 1.8 Differences in seedling densities in defaunated sites relative to non-
267
+ | defaunated sites……………………………………………………….. 22
268
+ | 1.9 Community-level herb densities in defaunation forest comparisons
269
+ | and mammal exclosure experiments………………………………….. 24
270
+ | 1.10 Differences in species richness, dominance, and diversity for
271
+ | defaunation forest comparisons and mammal exclosure experiments... 26
272
+ | 2.1 Vertebrate activity in open and exclosure plots……………………….. 41
273
+ | 2.2 Proportion of seedlings by dispersal mode class in open and exclosure 42
274
+ | treatments……………………………………………………………..
275
+ | 2.3 Proportion of seedlings by life form class in open and exclosure 42
276
+ | treatments……………………………………………………………..
277
+ | 2.4 Median seed mass is significantly higher in exclosures……………… 43
278
+ | 2.5 Effects of exclosure and hunting on community median wood density. 44
279
+ | 2.6 Associations between dispersal agents and species wood specific
280
+ | gravity………………………………………………………………… 45
281
+ | 3.1 Changes in plot-level trait means, unweighted by species abundance... 58
282
+ | 3.2 Abundance-weighted, plot-level trait means in open and exclosure
283
+ | plots…………………………………………………………………… 59
284
+ | 3.3 Intraspecific differences in species’ mean leaf toughness……………. 60
285
+ | 4.1 Model of how seed predation should vary with seed mass as a
286
+ | function of defaunation intensity…………………………………….. 71
287
+ | 4.2 Map of Lake Gatun study area……………………………………….. 73
288
+ | 4.3 Animal abundances in BCI and PNS in 2008………………………… 77
289
+ blank |
290
+ meta | x
291
+ text | 4.4 Seed predation rates as a function of seed size……………………….. 78
292
+ | 4.5 Number of palm seed cached in BCI and PNS………………………... 79
293
+ | 4.6 Identity of species removing seeds…………………………………… 80
294
+ | 4.7 Published studies examining seed predation of large-seeded palms….. 85
295
+ blank |
296
+ |
297
+ |
298
+ |
299
+ meta | xi
300
+ | 1
301
+ blank |
302
+ |
303
+ |
304
+ |
305
+ title | Introduction
306
+ text | Tropical forests are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. Many
307
+ | mechanisms have been proposed to explain the maintenance of that diversity,
308
+ | including negative distance- or density- dependent mortality, niche partitioning, and
309
+ | neutral processes. However, little attention has been paid to the role vertebrate
310
+ | consumers play in maintaining tropical diversity. Evidence from defaunated tropical
311
+ | forests suggests that these animals play a critical role in diversity maintenance
312
+ | (Chapter 1). This dissertation examines how terrestrial vertebrates, as seed dispersers,
313
+ | seed predators and herbivores, influence plant community composition in tropical
314
+ | forests and thereby levels of diversity. Specifically, I used plant functional traits as a
315
+ | lens through which to observe changes in seedling and sapling communities, identify
316
+ | which guilds of consumers were responsible for the changes, and elucidate trait-
317
+ | mediated mechanisms for the observed change. This work suggests that terrestrial
318
+ | vertebrates play an underappreciated role in maintaining plant diversity and that pan-
319
+ | tropical levels of unsustainable hunting may indirectly lead to losses of plant
320
+ | biodiversity.
321
+ | I first examined how community-level functional trait composition shifts in
322
+ | seedling communities which have been protected from terrestrial mammals (Chapter
323
+ | 2). I conducted this work in the Barro Colorado National Monument in Central
324
+ | Panama, where a long term mammal exclosure experiment was established in 1993-
325
+ | 94, and where terrestrial mammals are relatively abundant. I found that seedling
326
+ | communities in exclosures did not differ in their dispersal mode or in the relative
327
+ | abundance of free standing and climbing growth forms, as may be expected in an
328
+ | experiment that did not manipulate primary dispersal agents. Seedling communities in
329
+ | exclosures had higher median seed mass than paired plots open to the mammal
330
+ | community, but treatments did not differ in their leaf traits (leaf mass per area and
331
+ meta | 2 INTRODUCTION
332
+ blank |
333
+ |
334
+ text | laminar toughness) or wood density. These results were validated with similar data
335
+ | from a defaunation gradient in the same region of Central Panama. One key contrast
336
+ | to the exclosure, however, was that seedling communities in defaunated sites had a
337
+ | higher representation of species with abiotic dispersal modes, lianas, and species with
338
+ | lower wood densities, which is consistent with the fact that primary dispersers are
339
+ | impacted by hunting.
340
+ | I next examined the sapling community in the exclosure experiment to evaluate
341
+ | the effects of herbivores specifically, and to identify the relative contributions of
342
+ | altered species present, abundance, and trait expression to the differences in functional
343
+ | trait composition observed (Chapter 3). In contrast to the seedling community, the
344
+ | sapling community did show significant shifts toward higher leaf nitrogen and lower
345
+ | leaf toughness in response to herbivore exclosure, primarily due to an increased
346
+ | dominance of species with those traits, and secondarily due to differences in the
347
+ | species present in each treatment type. Interestingly, I also found evidence that
348
+ | intraspecific differences in leaf traits were also contributing minorly to changes in
349
+ | community mean leaf toughness, though whether this is the result of differential
350
+ | mortality among genotypes or microhabitats, or a plastic response to decreased
351
+ | mammalian herbivory is unknown.
352
+ | Finally, I investigated the seed size response to changes in mammal abundance
353
+ | by measuring vertebrate seed predation rates in a protected and hunted forest (Chapter
354
+ | 4). I aimed to both test a model of how seed predation rates should vary with seed size
355
+ | and defaunation intensity, and potentially clarify discrepancies in community level
356
+ | seed-size responses to hunting at different sites. I found that in central Panama, seed
357
+ | mass does not correlate well with either body size of the seed predator, or vertebrate
358
+ | seed predation rates. In fact, I found little difference in seed predation rates between
359
+ | the protected and hunted forests, despite large differences in key seed predators such
360
+ | as peccaries and agoutis. I suggest that rather than formulate seed predation rates as a
361
+ | linear function of seed predator abundance, these interactions may be better modeled
362
+ | as threshold-dependent processes.
363
+ meta | 3
364
+ blank |
365
+ |
366
+ |
367
+ |
368
+ title | Chapter 1
369
+ blank |
370
+ title | Contemporaneous defaunation and
371
+ | cascading effects on tropical forests
372
+ | Erin. L. Kurten, Mauro Galetti
373
+ blank |
374
+ |
375
+ title | INTRODUCTION
376
+ blank |
377
+ text | Large bodied vertebrates have been subject to human hunting for millennia. At
378
+ | the end of the Pleistocene, a diversity of large mammals became extinct worldwide,
379
+ | with human overhunting likely being one of the major drivers (Barnosky et al. 2004).
380
+ | The extinction of mammoth, giant sloths, giant kangaroos, giant deer, and many more
381
+ | megafauna in such a short time likely changed the structure and composition of their
382
+ | associated plant communities (Zimov et al. 1995, Guimares et al. 2008, Johnson
383
+ | 2009).
384
+ | The extinction of large vertebrates is not a phenomenon restricted to the past,
385
+ | but rather continues in the present day. While scientists still debate what caused the
386
+ | Pleistocene megafaunal extinction (Alroy 2001; de Vivo & Carmignotto 2004; Koch
387
+ | & Barnosky 2006; Webb 2008), there is little doubt that human activities are
388
+ | resposible for threatening the persistence of approximately 22 percent of all mammal
389
+ | and 12 percent of all bird species in the world today (Pimm et al. 2006). Particularly
390
+ | in tropical forests, animal populations are currently in decline due to both
391
+ meta | 4 CHAPTER 1: CASCADING EFFECTS OF DEFAUNATION ON TROPICAL PLANTS
392
+ blank |
393
+ |
394
+ |
395
+ text | unsustainable hunting and habitat fragmentation throughout Asia (Corlett 2007),
396
+ | Africa (Fa & Brown 2009) and Latin America (Peres & Palacios 2007).
397
+ | Whether changes in vegetation structure and composition have occurred as a
398
+ | result of the extinction of the megafauna or climate change in the past, the effects of
399
+ | comtemporaneous defaunation on vegetation is measurable. In many parts of the
400
+ | tropics, plants have lost their major seeds dispersers, seed predators, and herbivores,
401
+ | likely altering plant demography, spatial distribution, genetic diversity and selection
402
+ | on seed and plant defense traits within species, with cascading effects on community
403
+ | composition and diversity.
404
+ blank |
405
+ title | SCOPE OF REVIEW
406
+ blank |
407
+ text | Because the animals most vulnerable to defaunation, as well as their less vulnerable
408
+ | competitors, interact with plants as seed dispersers, seed predators, seedling predators,
409
+ | and herbivores, contemporaneous defaunation is likely to disrupt plant-vertebrate
410
+ | interactions. Several papers have outlined in detail how species interactions and plant
411
+ | communities are likely to change as a consequence of these disruptions (Wright 2003,
412
+ | Dirzo et al. 2007, Muller-Landau 2007). Disruptions of seed dispersal are likely to
413
+ | have negative effects on plant recruitment by preventing individuals from escaping
414
+ | distance-dependent and density-dependent mortality (sensu Janzen 1970, Connell
415
+ | 1971). Reduced seed dispersal may also prevent light-demanding species, or species
416
+ | with other specific environmental requirements, from reaching sites favorable for
417
+ | recruitment (Muller-Landau 2007, Brodie et al. 2009). Changes in seed predation,
418
+ | seedling predation, and herbivory may have positive or negative effects on species
419
+ | recruitment by altering seed and seedling survival (Wright 2003, Dirzo et al. 2007,
420
+ | Muller-Landau 2007). Changes in seed predation and seedling predation may have
421
+ | further indirect benefits for invertebrate seed predators and herbivores.
422
+ | Overall, the net effect of defaunation on plant diversity has been hypothesized
423
+ | to be negative (Wright 2003, Muller-Landau 2007) This is both because it is thought
424
+ | that species experiencing reduced seed dispersal will not persist if they cannot escape
425
+ meta | 5
426
+ blank |
427
+ |
428
+ |
429
+ text | distance-dependent or density-dependent mortality, and because seed predators and
430
+ | herbivores will not suppress populations of competitively dominant species.
431
+ | Here we synthesize what is currently known about the indirect effects of
432
+ | defaunation on tropical plants, in the context of hunting, forest fragmentation, and
433
+ | animal exclosure. We divide our analysis into three sections, addressing effects on
434
+ | plant-animal interactions, population demography, and community diversity. Our first
435
+ | goal was to evaluate the extent to which the hypothesized changes mentioned above
436
+ | are supported by empirical evidence. Our second goal was to focus on plant species
437
+ | or community responses that show mixed responses to defaunation, and try to clarify
438
+ | why such variability may exist. Our third goal was to identify areas of study which
439
+ | have received little attention and warrant future attention.
440
+ blank |
441
+ |
442
+ title | METHODOLOGY
443
+ blank |
444
+ |
445
+ text | IDENTIFICATION OF STUDIES Here we summarize literature in the field as of 2009.
446
+ | We identified studies primarily by searching literature databases for publications on
447
+ | aspects of plant ecology with a “defaunation” or “hunting” component. We
448
+ | supplemented this collection with other studies cited in that literature, as well as
449
+ | unpublished theses of which we had knowledge. In total, thirty-seven studies
450
+ | comprise the quantitative portion of this review (Appendix 1).
451
+ blank |
452
+ |
453
+ text | STANDARDIZATION OF RESPONSE VARIABLES FOR COMPARISON Together, the
454
+ | variation in study design, defaunation intensities compared, species studied, and
455
+ | response variables measured introduce too much heterogeneity to conduct a formal
456
+ | meta-analysis of responses (Hedges & Olkin 1985). Yet, we have attempted to present
457
+ | a review which is quantitative rather than qualitative. We have done so by calculating
458
+ | effect sizes for each response variable. The effect size estimator we use here is the
459
+ | percent difference in the response variable reported between defaunated and non-
460
+ | defaunated sites as follows:
461
+ | ோವ ିோಿವ
462
+ | Effect size = ∗ 100,
463
+ | ோಿವ
464
+ meta | 6 CHAPTER 1: CASCADING EFFECTS OF DEFAUNATION ON TROPICAL PLANTS
465
+ blank |
466
+ |
467
+ |
468
+ text | where RD and RND are the magnitudes of the response variables in the defaunated and
469
+ | non-defaunated sites, respectively. In cases where the denominator, RND, was zero, we
470
+ | used the smallest possible non-zero value for RND (e.g. one seed, in the case of
471
+ | absolute seed dispersal). When the minimum possible response could not be inferred
472
+ | (e.g., a percent abundance), we conservatively estimated the effect size as 100 percent.
473
+ | For example, where size class data were reported, sapling to seedling ratios were
474
+ | calculated to allow for comparison of recruitment rates across studies.
475
+ | When studies reported response variables from multiple defaunated or non-
476
+ | defaunated sites, the data were averaged to derive a single value for defaunated and
477
+ | non-defaunated states. In studies of defaunation gradients, data on the abundance or
478
+ | presence-absence of vertebrate species relevant to the study, as well as the authors’
479
+ | categorical characterizations of the relative levels of defaunation were used to define
480
+ | sites as “defaunated” or “non-defaunated” for purposes of comparison. In these cases,
481
+ | sites experiencing the lowest levels of defaunation were often grouped with “no
482
+ | defaunation” sites, while sites showing medium to high levels of defaunation
483
+ | comprised the “defaunated” sites.
484
+ blank |
485
+ |
486
+ text | QUANTIFICATION OF DEFAUNATION INTENSITY We attempted to compare effects as a
487
+ | function of defaunation intensity. We restricted these analyses to Neotropical sites
488
+ | (70% of studies) because more extensive and comparative data on vertebrate
489
+ | communities was reported for this region. We selected twelve genera of mammalian
490
+ | frugivores, granivores, and browsers that differ in body mass and sensitivity to
491
+ | defaunation pressures: Tapir, Tayassu, Pecari, Odocoileus, Mazama, Ateles, Allouata,
492
+ | Cebus, Agouti, Dasyprocta, Sciurus and Proechimys. These genera are wide-ranging
493
+ | in the Neotropics, though the particular species may vary. Because some studies did
494
+ | not report animal abundances or densities, but rather species presence or absence, we
495
+ | calculated the degree of defaunation for each site as the percent of focal genera that
496
+ | appeared to be locally extirpated in that site, though present historically.
497
+ meta | 7
498
+ blank |
499
+ |
500
+ |
501
+ text | SEED SIZE DATA In several cases, the perturbations in plant-animal interactions as a
502
+ | consequence of defaunation are hypothesized to vary as a function of seed size. We
503
+ | therefore attempted to rank species by seed size in order to present the data in a way
504
+ | that would address these hypotheses. In most cases, either seed mass or seed length
505
+ | was reported. In the case of Celtis durandii, one Astrocaryum species and one
506
+ | unspecified Dipteryx species for which seed sizes were not reported, an approximate
507
+ | seed size was estimated by assigning that species the value of a congeneric species
508
+ | from another site. Species for which both length and mass were reported were used to
509
+ | approximate a relative size rank for the species for which only mass or length were
510
+ | reported. Alternatively, we could have used published seed mass-seed length
511
+ | correlations to estimate missing size parameters and used one measure of seed size to
512
+ | assign size ranks. However, this would generally change the positions of only a few
513
+ | species with unusual seed mass-to-seed length proportions (e.g. Gustavia superba),
514
+ | and we felt that those species were better assigned a rank by considering the size
515
+ | parameters in the context of the plant-animal interaction and the natural history of that
516
+ | species.
517
+ blank |
518
+ title | PLANT-ANIMAL INTERACTIONS
519
+ blank |
520
+ |
521
+ title | Seed dispersal
522
+ text | Seed dispersal is thought to promote plant recruitment in tropical forests by facilitating
523
+ | escape from natural enemies (Janzen 1970, Connell 1971) and by helping species with
524
+ | particular environmental requirements for germination and survival (e.g. light-
525
+ | demanding species) reach favorable microhabitats (Muller-Landau 2007). Seed
526
+ | dispersal establishes the spatial distribution and diversity of species in the seed and
527
+ | seedling banks.
528
+ | A single seed can be dispersed multiple times by different agents. Here we
529
+ | refer to primary seed dispersal as physical removal from the parent tree and deposition
530
+ | on the ground. Primary seed dispersal can be performed by biotic agents such as
531
+ | primates, bats, and birds, or by abiotic agents such as wind. Once a seed has dispersed
532
+ | from the parent tree, it may still disperse further. This we refer to here as secondary
533
+ meta | 8 CHAPTER 1: CASCADING EFFECTS OF DEFAUNATION ON TROPICAL PLANTS
534
+ blank |
535
+ |
536
+ |
537
+ text | dispersal. We focus on secondary dispersal by biotic agents such as rodents, though in
538
+ | some circumstances, water and gravity may also facilitate dispersal on the ground.
539
+ blank |
540
+ |
541
+ text | PRIMARY SEED DISPERSAL Seed dispersal by biotic agents should decrease as
542
+ | defaunation intensity increases and the abundance of seed dispersers is reduced. This
543
+ | should affect large-seeded species to a disproportionate degree for two reasons. First,
544
+ | their predominate dispersal agents tend to be larger-bodied, and therefore more
545
+ | vulnerable to defaunation (Peres & van Roosmalen 2002, Holbrook & Loiselle 2009).
546
+ | There also appears to be less redundancy of seed dispersal agents for large-seeded
547
+ | species, relative to smaller-seeded species (Peres & van Roosmalen 2002, Nuñez-Iturri
548
+ | et al. 2008, Donatti et al. 2009). When seed dispersal has been directly measured,
549
+ | either as the quantity of seeds removed by primary dispersers such as birds or
550
+ | primates, or as the proportion of seed crop removed from a parent tree, seed dispersal
551
+ | is lower in defaunated forests in almost all cases examined (Fig. 1.1). The magnitude
552
+ | of the decrease appears to be moderately correlated with seed size.
553
+ | It is important to keep in mind that tropical seed mass distributions span more
554
+ | than seven orders of magnitude (I.J. Wright et al. 2007). The species reported here
555
+ | represent only the very upper range of that distribution and were generally selected for
556
+ | study because they were most likely to show dispersal declines. Almost nothing is
557
+ | known about how hunting alters biotic dispersal across the broader range of seed sizes
558
+ | (Muller-Landau 2007).
559
+ | Two studies examining how perturbations of bird communities affect the
560
+ | dispersal of smaller-seeded species (< 1 cm fruit diameter) have shown contrasting
561
+ | results. Dispersal of Bocageopsis multiflora in defaunated sites was actually more than
562
+ | 2-fold higher than in non-defaunated sites (Fig. 1.1). The cause of this increase is
563
+ | unknown, but has been suggested to result from an increase in the relative abundance
564
+ | of generalist, frugivorous birds in highly fragmented sites (Cramer et al. 2007). In the
565
+ | case of Celtis durandii, a decrease in avian forest specialists that was not compensated
566
+ | for by forests generalists appears to be responsible for in an overall decrease in seed
567
+ | dispersal (Kirika et al. 2008).
568
+ meta | 9
569
+ blank |
570
+ |
571
+ |
572
+ |
573
+ text | Genus & Source
574
+ | Large (Community), Tonga (26)
575
+ | Leptonychia, Tanzania (9)
576
+ | Dipteryx, Costa Rica (19)
577
+ | Duckeodendron, Brazil (10)
578
+ | Carapa, Costa Rica (19)
579
+ | Attalea, Panama (36)
580
+ | Gustavia, Panama (3)
581
+ | Astrocaryum, Panama (36)
582
+ | Antrocaryon, Cameroon (35)
583
+ | Virola, Panama (3)
584
+ | Choerospondias, Thailand (7)
585
+ | Pouteria, Brazil (2)
586
+ | Pourouma, Brazil (2)
587
+ | Virola, Ecuador (20)
588
+ | Euterpe, Brazil (14)
589
+ | Bocageopsis, Brazil (10)
590
+ | Small Celtis, Uganda (22)
591
+ | -100 -50 0 50 100 150
592
+ | % Difference in Seeds Dispersed
593
+ blank |
594
+ |
595
+ text | FIGURE 1.1 Seed dispersal is lower in defaunated sites relative to non-defaunated
596
+ | sites in almost all cases. Species are ranked by seed size, with Leptonychia being
597
+ | largest (11.15 cm long) and Bocageopsis and Celtis being smallest (< 1 cm long).
598
+ | Numbers in parentheses denote the study number in Appendix 1.
599
+ blank |
600
+ text | SEED CACHING A special case of seed dispersal is the caching of seeds in the ground
601
+ | by scatter-hoarding rodents. While individual cached seeds may be predated at a later
602
+ | time, seeds that are not subsequently recovered are afforded protection from
603
+ | invertebrate seed predators. For some species, such as large seeded palms with
604
+ | specialist bruchid beetle seed predators, seed survival is heavily dependent upon seed
605
+ | caching by rodents.
606
+ meta | 10 CHAPTER 1: CASCADING EFFECTS OF DEFAUNATION ON TROPICAL PLANTS
607
+ blank |
608
+ |
609
+ |
610
+ text | In most cases, seed caching was higher in defaunated sites relative to non-
611
+ | defaunated sites (Fig. 1.2). This is likely due to the fact that the rodents primarily
612
+ | responsible for seed caching in these forests, agoutis (Dasyprocta spp.) and squirrels
613
+ | (Sciurus spp.) may actually benefit from a reduction in the abundance of predators and
614
+ | larger-bodied competitors at low to medium levels of defaunation (Wright 2003, Dirzo
615
+ | et al. 2007, Peres & Palacios 2007). Therefore, while defaunation may have a
616
+ | negative effect on primary dispersal, this negative effect often does not extend to
617
+ | secondary seed dispersal by terrestrial rodents.
618
+ blank |
619
+ |
620
+ text | Genus & Source
621
+ | Large Carapa, Costa Rica (18)
622
+ | Attalea, Panama (24)
623
+ | Astrocaryum, Panama (24)
624
+ | Lechthis, Costa Rica (18)
625
+ | Pentaclethra, Costa Rica (18)
626
+ | Astrocaryum, Brazil (17)
627
+ | Astrocaryum, Brazil (13)
628
+ | Minquartia, Costa Rica (21)
629
+ | Hymenaea, Venezuela (4)
630
+ | Welfia, Costa Rica (18)
631
+ | Otoba, Costa Rica (18)
632
+ | Virola, Costa Rica (18)
633
+ | Clarisia, Costa Rica (11)
634
+ | Small Virola, Costa Rica (11)
635
+ blank |
636
+ text | -200 -100 0 100 200 300 400 500
637
+ | % Difference in Seeds Cached
638
+ blank |
639
+ |
640
+ text | FIGURE 1.2 Differences in seed caching rates in defaunated sites relative to non-
641
+ | defaunated sites. Species are ranked by size, with Carapa being the largest (20 g) and
642
+ | Virola the smallest (2 g). Absence of bar indicates no difference. Numbers in
643
+ | parentheses denote the study number in Appendix 1.
644
+ meta | 11
645
+ blank |
646
+ |
647
+ |
648
+ text | Defaunation gradients in Venezuela and Brazil were exceptions to the trend of
649
+ | higher seed caching rates in defaunated forests (Asquith et al. 1999, Galetti et al.
650
+ | 2006). In both of these cases, the defaunated sites were small fragments in which
651
+ | agoutis were virtually absent. Consistent with the loss of this important terrestrial
652
+ | seed disperser, seed caching in defaunated sites was lower than in non-defaunated sites
653
+ | in these studies (Fig. 1.2). Squirrels do not compensate for the loss of agoutis (Donatti
654
+ | et al. 2009).
655
+ | In contrast to primary dispersal, no relationship between seed size and
656
+ | differences in caching rates were apparent between defaunated and non-defaunated
657
+ | sites. This may again be due to the fact that agoutis are capable of handling large
658
+ | seeds and fruits much larger than their relatively small gape size might suggest.
659
+ | Therefore, in the Neotropics secondary dispersal of larger-seeded species may occur
660
+ | despite some degree of defaunation, provided that agoutis persist in the site.
661
+ | Smaller-bodied scatter-hoarding rodents, such as squirrels, exist in Africa and
662
+ | Asia, however to our knowledge, there is no functional equivalent to the agouti in
663
+ | Paleotropical forests. The larger Paleotropical rodents that do exist, such as
664
+ | Cricetomys species, are larder-hoarding rodents that tend to take seeds to burrows
665
+ | where they will not survive (Guedje et al. 2003). Therefore, the seed dispersal
666
+ | “buffer” that agoutis provide in the Neotropics is less likely to be present in other
667
+ | systems.
668
+ blank |
669
+ |
670
+ text | SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF SEEDS AND SEEDLINGS The spatial distribution of seeds
671
+ | and seedlings on the forest floor can also be an indicator of changes in seed dispersal.
672
+ | In particular, if seed dispersal is lower in defaunated forests, one would expect to find
673
+ | a greater proportion of seeds or seedlings undispersed under parent trees relative to
674
+ | what is observed in non-defaunated forests. Likewise, one would expect to see fewer
675
+ | seeds or seedlings at distances away from parent trees relative to non-defaunated
676
+ | forests. Indeed for many species, seed or seedling numbers under parent trees were 2-
677
+ | to 12-fold higher in defaunated sites relative to non-defaunated sites, and were lower
678
+ meta | 12 CHAPTER 1: CASCADING EFFECTS OF DEFAUNATION ON TROPICAL PLANTS
679
+ blank |
680
+ |
681
+ |
682
+ text | away from parent trees (Fig. 1.3). These patterns are consistent with the loss of biotic
683
+ | dispersal agents.
684
+ | One notable exception is Hymenaea on land-bridge islands in Venezuela.
685
+ | Hymenaea shows the highest increases in seed pods remaining under parent trees in
686
+ | sites without agoutis relative to sites with agoutis. However, it is one of the few cases
687
+ | in which seedling densities are actually lower under parent trees in defaunated forests
688
+ | (Fig.1.3). This is not due to distance or density dependent mortality effects as
689
+ | mediated by specialist invertebrates or pathogens (Janzen 1970, Connell 1971).
690
+ | Rather, Hymenaea relies on agoutis to open its seed pods so that seeds may germinate.
691
+ | In sites lacking agoutis, the seeds cannot escape the seed pod, and seedling densities
692
+ | are correspondingly low (Asquith et al. 1999).
693
+ | One study estimated changes in dispersal distances with defaunation. Cramer
694
+ | et al. (2007) reported a 60 percent and 80 percent decrease in mean and maximum
695
+ | dispersal distances respectively for the large-seeded Duckeodendron cestroides in
696
+ | defaunated fragments, relative to continuous forest. In the same study, the smaller-
697
+ | seeded Bocageopsis multiflora mean and maximum dispersal distances were not
698
+ | significantly different. This suggests that large-seeded species may become more
699
+ | spatially aggregated in defaunated forests. Those plant species requiring special
700
+ | microhabitats for germination and recruitment (e.g. light gaps) may have greater
701
+ | difficultly reaching suitable sites. Meanwhile, smaller seeded species may be less
702
+ | affected.
703
+ meta | 13
704
+ blank |
705
+ |
706
+ text | Genus & Source
707
+ | Large Choerospondias, Thailand (7)
708
+ | Leptonychia, Tanzania (9) Under Parent
709
+ | Balanites, Gabon (5)
710
+ | Attalea, Panama (37)
711
+ | Attalea, Panama (37)
712
+ | Attalea, Panama (36)
713
+ | Dysoxylum, India (31)
714
+ | Chisocheton, India (31)
715
+ | Astrocaryum, Panama (36)
716
+ | Hymenaea, Venezuela (5)
717
+ | Polyalthia, India (31)
718
+ | Hymenaea, Venezuela (4)
719
+ | Syagrus, Brazil (1)
720
+ | Small Antrocaryon, Cameroon (35)
721
+ | -250 0 250 500 750 1000 1250 1500 2350 2600
722
+ | Large Attalea, Panama (37)
723
+ | Attalea, Panama (37) Away From
724
+ | Attalea, Panama (36) Parent
725
+ | Astrocaryum, Panama (36)
726
+ | Duckeodendron, Brazil (10)
727
+ | Dysoxylum, India (31)
728
+ | Chisocheton, India (31)
729
+ | Polyalthia, India (31)
730
+ | Small Bocageopsis, Brazil (10)
731
+ blank |
732
+ text | Seeds -100 -50 0 50 100 150 250 300 350
733
+ | Seedlings % Difference in Seed or Seedling Abundance
734
+ blank |
735
+ text | FIGURE 1.3 The number or proportion of seeds or seedlings is generally higher
736
+ | immediate vicinity of parent trees and generally lower away from parent trees, in
737
+ | defaunated sites relative to non-defaunated sites. Species are ordered by seed size.
738
+ | Numbers in parentheses denote the study number in Appendix 1.
739
+ blank |
740
+ |
741
+ |
742
+ text | COMPENSATION AMONG DISPERSAL AGENTS An important question regarding seed
743
+ | dispersal in tropical forests is whether a decrease in dispersal by the principle dispersal
744
+ | agent may be compensated for by other dispersal agents. Comparisons of primate
745
+ | diets suggest that smaller species of primates only disperse a nested subset of the plant
746
+ | species that are dispersed by larger primates. Even when co-occurring dispersers
747
+ meta | 14 CHAPTER 1: CASCADING EFFECTS OF DEFAUNATION ON TROPICAL PLANTS
748
+ blank |
749
+ |
750
+ |
751
+ text | appear to have significant dietary overlap on the basis of species consumed, a
752
+ | quantitative diet analysis reveals that dispersers differ in the fruit species that make up
753
+ | the major portion of their diets (Poulsen et al. 2002). This suggests that even
754
+ | dispersers with diet overlap may not compensate for one another. Similarly, among
755
+ | frugivores that feed on Virola, alternative dispersers do not shift their diet preferences
756
+ | enough to compensate for the loss of the principle dispersers (Holbrook & Loiselle
757
+ | 2009).
758
+ | Decreases in primary seed dispersal summarized here (Fig. 1.1) suggest that
759
+ | this lack of compensation among primary dispersal agents may be fairly general, at
760
+ | least for larger-seeded species. There are no studies that directly investigate the
761
+ | degree to which an increase in secondary dispersal by terrestrial vertebrates (e.g. Fig
762
+ | 1.2) may compensate for reduced dispersal by birds and primates. However, in cases
763
+ | where species have lost their primary dispersal agent, the number of seeds and
764
+ | seedlings remaining under adult trees in defaunated sites is often higher than in non-
765
+ | defaunated sites (Fig. 1.3). These data provide indirect evidence that, at least in the
766
+ | cases studied, terrestrial seed dispersers do not fully compensate for loss of principle
767
+ | avian and primate dispersers. It is possible, however, that terrestrial dispersers are
768
+ | partially compensating for the loss of other dispersers, and that the observed changes
769
+ | in seed and seedling densities under and away from parents would be even more
770
+ | extreme in the absence of terrestrial dispersal.
771
+ blank |
772
+ title | Seed Predation
773
+ blank |
774
+ text | PRE-DISPERSAL SEED PREDATION Beckman and Muller-Landau (2007) investigated
775
+ | effects of defaunation on pre-dispersal seed predation for two species of contrasting
776
+ | seed size in central Panama. They found that pre-dispersal seed predation by
777
+ | mammals was significantly lower in the defaunated sites for the larger-seeded
778
+ | Oneocarpus mapora. Authors did not observe mammalian pre-dispersal seed
779
+ | predation of small-seeded Cordia bicolor. Pre-dispersal seed predation by insects
780
+ | between sites was not significantly different for either species.
781
+ meta | 15
782
+ blank |
783
+ |
784
+ |
785
+ text | POST-DISPERSAL SEED PREDATION After primary dispersal, seeds may be predated
786
+ | upon by terrestrial mammals such as rodents, peccaries, pigs and deer. The majority of
787
+ | studies comparing seed predation rates between defaunated and non-defaunated sites
788
+ | have performed manipulative experiments, setting out arrays of seeds and monitoring
789
+ | the fates of those seeds. However a few studies of species with slowly decomposing
790
+ | endocarps have looked at “standing” rates of seed predation in the field (Wright et al.
791
+ | 2000, Wright & Duber 2001, Galetti et al. 2006). In 22 of the 31 cases, seed predation
792
+ | rates were lower in defaunated sites, while in nine cases, seed predation rates were
793
+ | higher (Fig. 1.4).
794
+ | In a conceptual model, larger-seeded species were hypothesized to experience
795
+ | higher seed predation rates in moderately defaunated forests relative to non-
796
+ | defaunated forests (Dirzo et al. 2007). At severe intensities of defaunation, however,
797
+ | large-seeded species were hypothesized to experience lower seed predation rates,
798
+ | relative to sites with moderate to no defaunation. These changes in seed predation
799
+ | rates were posited to be in response to changes in the abundance of seed predators of
800
+ | medium body size.
801
+ | Using our estimates of defaunation intensity for Neotropical sites, we
802
+ | examined how differences in seed predation rates for different plant species varied
803
+ | with defaunation intensity. These empirical data do not generally support the
804
+ | hypothesis that seed predation of larger seeds in moderately defaunated sites is higher
805
+ | than non-defauanted sites, while being lower in highly defaunated sites. (Fig. 1.4).
806
+ | Among the largest-seeded species studied, seed predation increased and decreased in
807
+ | about the same number of cases across all levels of defaunation examined.
808
+ | The conceptual model also hypothesized that seed predation rates of smaller
809
+ | seeded species would increase monotonically with increasing defaunation intensity, as
810
+ | small rodents experienced release from competition and predation. However
811
+ | empirical data suggest that seed predation rates are generally lower for smaller-seeded
812
+ | species in defaunated sites, regardless of defaunation intensity (Fig. 1.4).
813
+ meta | 16 CHAPTER 1: CASCADING EFFECTS OF DEFAUNATION ON TROPICAL PLANTS
814
+ blank |
815
+ |
816
+ |
817
+ text | 250
818
+ blank |
819
+ |
820
+ |
821
+ |
822
+ text | % Difference in Seed Predation
823
+ | 200
824
+ blank |
825
+ text | 150
826
+ blank |
827
+ text | 100
828
+ blank |
829
+ text | 50
830
+ blank |
831
+ text | 0
832
+ blank |
833
+ text | -50
834
+ blank |
835
+ text | -100
836
+ | 0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0 120.0
837
+ blank |
838
+ text | Defaunation Intensity in Defaunated Site
839
+ blank |
840
+ |
841
+ text | FIGURE 1.4 Differences in seed predation rates as a function of the intensity of
842
+ | defaunation in the defaunated sites. Circle sizes indicate the relative seed size of the
843
+ | plant species.
844
+ blank |
845
+ text | INVERTEBRATE SEED PREDATION It has been suggested that a reduction in vertebrate
846
+ | seed predation may benefit invertebrate seed predators in two ways. First,
847
+ | invertebrates experience a release from competition for seed resources (Muller-Landau
848
+ | 2007). Secondly, larvae developing in seeds may experience decreased mortality due
849
+ | to the reduction of seed predation by vertebrates (Silvius 2002). Through these
850
+ | mechanisms, defaunation may lead to higher abundances of invertebrates, and thereby
851
+ | higher rates of invertebrate seed predation.
852
+ | Few studies have investigated how defaunation indirectly alters invertebrate
853
+ | seed predation rates. Consistent with expectation, bruchid beetle seed predation of
854
+ | palms was higher in defaunated sites for every species investigated (Fig. 1.5).
855
+ | However, in most cases, the absolute increase in invertebrate seed predation rates only
856
+ | partially compensated for the decreases in vertebrate seed predation (Wright et al.
857
+ | 2000, Wright & Duber 2001, but see Galetti et al. 2006).
858
+ meta | 17
859
+ blank |
860
+ |
861
+ |
862
+ text | Genus & Source
863
+ | Attalea, Panama (37)
864
+ | Attalea, Panama (36)
865
+ | Astrocaryum, Brazil (17)
866
+ | Astrocaryum, Panama (36)
867
+ | Syagrus, Brazil (1)
868
+ | Syagrus, Brazil (1)
869
+ | 0 500 1000 1500
870
+ | % Difference in Invertebrate
871
+ | Seed Predation
872
+ | FIGURE 1.5 Seed predation rates by invertebrates for four species of palms are
873
+ | higher in defaunated sites relative to non-defaunated sites. Species are ranked by
874
+ | size, with Attalea being the largest and Syagrus the smallest. Numbers in parentheses
875
+ | denote the study number in Appendix 1.
876
+ blank |
877
+ |
878
+ title | Herbivory & Trampling
879
+ blank |
880
+ |
881
+ text | Few observational studies have evaluated differences in herbivory or trampling as a
882
+ | consequence of defaunation. Dirzo & Miranda (1991) an absence of vertebrate
883
+ | herbivory in Los Tuxtlas, a defaunated site. Alves-Costa (2004) categorized herbivory
884
+ | of the palm Syagrus romanzoffiana into classes by percent damage and also found that
885
+ | the frequency individuals experiencing little to no herbivory was 66% higher in
886
+ | defaunated sites.
887
+ | Mortality by trampling has not been evaluated for live seedlings in the context
888
+ | of defaunation, however trampling has been evaluated with seedling models. In
889
+ | Bolivia, “trampling” of seedling models by vertebrates was 75 percent lower in
890
+ | defaunated forests (Roldán and Simonetti 2001).
891
+ blank |
892
+ |
893
+ title | POPULATION DEMOGRAPHY
894
+ blank |
895
+ |
896
+ text | RECRUITMENT Reduced seed dispersal in defaunated forests has been hypothesized
897
+ | to have negative impacts on plant recruitment by preventing individuals from escaping
898
+ | distance-dependent and density dependent mortality (Muller-Landau 2007).
899
+ | Empirically, plant recruitment has been reported either in terms of new seedlings
900
+ meta | 18 CHAPTER 1: CASCADING EFFECTS OF DEFAUNATION ON TROPICAL PLANTS
901
+ blank |
902
+ |
903
+ |
904
+ text | entering the population in a determined length of time, or as the ratio of juvenile plants
905
+ | to seedlings. Authors could define seedlings variously as first year germinants or by
906
+ | size class. In about half of cases, recruitment was about 2-fold higher in defaunated
907
+ | forests than in non-defaunated forests, both for seedlings and saplings (Fig. 1.6). In
908
+ | the other half of cases, recruitment is lower in defaunated forests.
909
+ | There have been virtually no investigations into why recruitment rates change.
910
+ | The variation in changes in recruitment do not seem to be consistently related to the
911
+ | degree of defaunation across studies, loss of particular dispersers or loss of particular
912
+ | seed predators. Changes in vertebrate seedling predation and herbivory, as well as
913
+ | distance and density dependent mortality as mediated by invertebrate herbivores and
914
+ | pathogens (Janzen 1970, Connell 1971), can be responsible for altered seedling
915
+ | recruitment. However, no studies have recorded herbivory rates or causes of plant
916
+ | mortality, so no definitive data exists on how each of these mechanisms contribute to
917
+ | the changes in recruitment observed. One study of Syagrus found that sapling
918
+ | recruitment near the parent tree was slightly lower in defaunated forests, while
919
+ | recruitment far from the parent tree was more than 2-fold higher in defaunated forests
920
+ | (Alves-Costa 2004). This may be because non-vertebrate natural enemies are more
921
+ | than compensating for the loss of vertebrate herbivores near the parent trees, but not at
922
+ | far distances, for this species. However, no data exist with which to evaluate this
923
+ | explanation.
924
+ | It is also possible, in some cases, that differences in recruitment are not
925
+ | actually due to defaunation. In some studies of seedling recruitment, only one
926
+ | defaunated site and one non-defaunated site were compared. This opens the
927
+ | possibility that some differences in recruitment were due to other environmental
928
+ | factors that vary across the landscape, such as precipitation or edaphic conditions. The
929
+ | driver of defaunation is another potential source of variation. In some cases, hunting
930
+ | was the cause of defaunation, altering primarily the animal community. However in
931
+ | other studies fragmentation or a combination of fragmentation and hunting was the
932
+ | cause of defaunation. As fragmentation alters many aspects of the microclimate, it is
933
+ | possible that changes in seedling recruitment are due to the effects of fragmentation on
934
+ meta | 19
935
+ blank |
936
+ |
937
+ |
938
+ text | microclimate, rather than or in addition to the effects of a reduction in herbivore
939
+ | abundance.
940
+ blank |
941
+ |
942
+ text | Genus & Source
943
+ | Attalea, Panama (36) Seedlings
944
+ | Dipteryx, Peru/Panama (34)
945
+ | Astrocaryum, Brazil (17)
946
+ | Astrocaryum, Panama (36)
947
+ | Syagrus, Brazil (1)
948
+ | Saplings
949
+ | (Community), Malaysia (31)
950
+ | Leptonychia, Tanzania (9)
951
+ | Balanites, Gabon (5)
952
+ | Astrocaryum, Brazil (17)
953
+ | Syagrus (near), Brazil (1)
954
+ | Syagrus (far), Brazil (1)
955
+ | -100 0 100 200 300 400 500
956
+ | % Difference in Recruitment
957
+ blank |
958
+ |
959
+ text | FIGURE 1.6 Plant recruitment does not respond consistently to defaunation across
960
+ | species for either seedlings or saplings. Numbers in parentheses denote the study
961
+ | number in Appendix 1.
962
+ blank |
963
+ |
964
+ text | SEEDLING SURVIVAL As with recruitment, responses of seedling survival to
965
+ | defaunation are quite variable (Fig. 1.7). Asquith et al. (1997) found that differences
966
+ | in seedling survival could vary among species within the same study system. Survival
967
+ | was lowest on highly defaunated islands in Lake Gatun, Panama for two of the three
968
+ | species tested. Exclosure experiments verified that spiny rats, free of competition
969
+ | from larger mammals, reach population sizes 10-fold greater on these islands relative
970
+ | to the non-that sites (Adler 1996), and are responsible for the increased mortality. The
971
+ | third species, which did not show a difference in survival between sites, Virola
972
+ | surinamensis, experienced 100% mortality at both defaunated and non-defaunated
973
+ | sites (Asquith et al. 1997).
974
+ | Differences in survival rates can also be variable within a species in the same
975
+ | region, likely due to differences in the defaunation intensities being compared. Two
976
+ meta | 20 CHAPTER 1: CASCADING EFFECTS OF DEFAUNATION ON TROPICAL PLANTS
977
+ blank |
978
+ |
979
+ |
980
+ text | studies have compared the survival of Gustavia superba in defaunated sites in the
981
+ | Lake Gatun region of central Panama. In one case, the defaunated site was hunted
982
+ | relative to the non-defaunated site, but the animal community was not so impoverished
983
+ | as to lead to a competitive release of small rodents. In that study, G. superba had
984
+ | higher survival rates in the defaunated sites. However, when the defaunated sites were
985
+ | islands with only high populations of spiny rats present, survival of G. superba was
986
+ | lower in the defaunated site. This difference in the degree of defaunation intensity
987
+ | evaluated in the two studies, and compensatory changes in abundance of non-hunted
988
+ | species, are likely to account for the contrasting responses in seedling survival, and
989
+ | illustrate that changes in seedling survival as a consequence of defaunation may not
990
+ | change monotonically.
991
+ blank |
992
+ |
993
+ text | Genus & Source
994
+ | Dipteryx, Panama (3)
995
+ | Gustavia, Panama (3)
996
+ | Dipteryx, Peru/Panama (33)
997
+ | Syagrus, Brazil (1)
998
+ | Virola, Panama (3)
999
+ | Gustavia, Panama (32)
1000
+ | Pentaclethra, Costa Rica (18)
1001
+ | -75 -50 -25 0 25 50 75 100 125
1002
+ | % Difference in Seedling Survival
1003
+ blank |
1004
+ |
1005
+ text | FIGURE 1.7 Seedling survival does not show consistent changes as a consequence of
1006
+ | defaunation, even within sites (e.g. study 4) or species (e.g. Gustavia superba in
1007
+ | Panama). Numbers in parentheses denote the study number in Appendix 1.
1008
+ blank |
1009
+ |
1010
+ text | STANDING ABUNDANCE Seedling densities do not respond uniformly to defaunation.
1011
+ | Species that are dispersed and predated upon by scatterhoarding rodents tend to
1012
+ | increase in abundance in defaunated sites (Fig. 1.8). Likewise the increase in seedling
1013
+ | abundance of the elephant dispersed Balanites wilsoniana, despite reduced seed
1014
+ | dispersal, was attributed to low seed and seedling predation in the defaunated site
1015
+ meta | 21
1016
+ blank |
1017
+ |
1018
+ |
1019
+ text | (Babweteera et al. 2007). Meanwhile, species that are bird dispersed have lower
1020
+ | abundances in non-defaunated sites.
1021
+ | These data suggest, for species which are rodent dispersed and predated, any
1022
+ | increases in distance-dependent or density-dependent mortality by invertebrates or
1023
+ | pathogens, as a consequence of reduced dispersal, do not compensate for reductions in
1024
+ | vertebrate seed and seedling predation, resulting in a net increase in survival for these
1025
+ | species. The same does not appear to be true for bird dispersed species, although there
1026
+ | is no theoretical reason why these species should not experience high reductions in
1027
+ | vertebrate seed predation.
1028
+ | All studies involving rodent dispersed species were conducted on palm species,
1029
+ | most of which are preferred food species for agoutis, a dominant Neotropical seed
1030
+ | predator. More studies in Neotropical forests are required to determine if these
1031
+ | species are unique in experiencing a net benefit from defaunation, or if other species
1032
+ | preyed upon by agoutis also increase in abundance in defaunated sites. These studies
1033
+ | should include species that have birds or primates as their primary dispersal agents.
1034
+ | In contrast to the rodent-dispersed palms, little is known about the seed
1035
+ | predators of the bird-dispersed species studied. However, at least two of the three
1036
+ | studies of bird-dispersed species were conducted in Paleotropical forests with different
1037
+ | assemblages of seed predators. Studies of vertebrate seed and seedling predation in
1038
+ | the Paleotropics may determine whether differences observed between rodent-
1039
+ | dispersed species and bird-dispersed species may be due to differences in the seed and
1040
+ | seedling predator community, rather than differences between species with different
1041
+ | dispersal agents per se.
1042
+ meta | 22 CHAPTER 1: CASCADING EFFECTS OF DEFAUNATION ON TROPICAL PLANTS
1043
+ blank |
1044
+ |
1045
+ text | Genus & Source
1046
+ | Astrocaryum, Brazil (17) Rodent Dispersed
1047
+ | Dipteryx, Peru (33)
1048
+ | Syagrus, Brazil (1)
1049
+ | Astrocaryum, Bolivia (29)
1050
+ | Syagrus, Brazil (1)
1051
+ | Attalea, Panama (36)
1052
+ | Attalea, Panama (37)
1053
+ | Astrocaryum, Panama (36)
1054
+ blank |
1055
+ text | Bird Dispersed
1056
+ | Chisocheton, India (31)
1057
+ | Polyalthia, India (31)
1058
+ | Dysoxylum, India (31)
1059
+ | Euterpe, Brazil (14)
1060
+ | Leptonychia, Tanzania (9)
1061
+ | -100 0 100 200 300
1062
+ | Elephant Dispersed
1063
+ | Balanites, Gabon (5)
1064
+ | -400 0 400 800 1200
1065
+ | % Difference in Seedling Densities
1066
+ | FIGURE 1.8 Differences in seedling densities in defaunated sites relative to non-
1067
+ | defaunated sites. Numbers in parentheses denote the study number in Appendix 1.
1068
+ blank |
1069
+ |
1070
+ text | LINKING DISPERSAL AND SEEDLING RECRUITMENT It is clear, by several measures,
1071
+ | that seed dispersal decreases as a consequence of defaunation (Figs. 1.1 & 1.3), though
1072
+ | effects on seed caching are variable (Fig. 1.2). What is less clear is whether decreased
1073
+ | dispersal translates to decreases in plant recruitment. Investigators focusing on
1074
+ | decreased seed dispersal as a consequence of defaunation often suggest that decreased
1075
+ | dispersal will result in decreases in seed and seedling survival and plant recruitment.
1076
+ | This is because undispersed seeds are assumed to be unable to escape distance-
1077
+ | dependent and/or density-dependent mortality (Janzen 1970, Connell 1971).
1078
+ | However, there are several problems with this assumption. First, there are
1079
+ | many species for which distance- and/or density-dependent mortality have not been
1080
+ | detected (Hyatt et al. 2003, Uriarte et al. 2005). Secondly, spatial data on seedling
1081
+ | densities also show that reduced seed dispersal does not generally lead to great
1082
+ | decreases in seedling abundances under parent trees in defaunated forests (Fig. 1.3).
1083
+ | This suggests that though seed and seedling mortality may be higher under parent
1084
+ meta | 23
1085
+ blank |
1086
+ |
1087
+ |
1088
+ text | trees, the higher number of seeds that fall below the parent tree in defaunated forests
1089
+ | compensate for this higher mortality and seedling densities under parent trees remain
1090
+ | relatively similar to those observed in non-defaunated forests. Finally, as seen above,
1091
+ | vertebrate seed and seedling predation rates may also vary with defaunation (Figs. 1.4
1092
+ | & 1.5). Seedling density data suggest that reduced rates of vertebrate seed predation
1093
+ | result in increased survival rates that more than compensate for any increases in
1094
+ | distance-dependent or density-dependent mortality by non-vertebrates, at least for
1095
+ | rodent-dispersed species and species like B. wilsoniana (Fig. 1.6). Taken together,
1096
+ | these data suggest that the assumed negative effects of reduced seed dispersal on plant
1097
+ | recruitment as a consequence of hunting may not be general, but rather manifest
1098
+ | themselves only in species which (1) experience strong natural enemy-mediated,
1099
+ | negative density-dependent mortality (2) rely exclusively upon a few, large-bodied,
1100
+ | hunted vertebrates for seed dispersal, and (3) do not experience a demographic benefit
1101
+ | of reduced seed predation by rodents with increasing defaunation intensity.
1102
+ | Interestingly, there are few studies that actually investigate changes in
1103
+ | dispersal and seedling recruitment simultaneously in a single species. In the case of
1104
+ | the large seeded palm Attalea butyracea in Central Panama, seed dispersal is reduced
1105
+ | in defaunated forests (Wright & Duber 2001). In addition, the intensity of bruchid
1106
+ | beetle seed predation does increase with proximity to the parent tree, and the effect
1107
+ | intensifies with defaunation. However, increased bruchid beetle seed predation did
1108
+ | not fully compensate for the decrease in vertebrate seed predation associated with the
1109
+ | defaunation, and seedling densities of the palm were higher in defaunated sites,
1110
+ | despite the decrease in seed dispersal.
1111
+ | Brodie et al. (2009) modeled the effects of decreased dispersal on seedling
1112
+ | recruitment for Choerospondias axillaris in Thailand and did find evidence that
1113
+ | decreased dispersal would translate to decreased recruitment in this species. However
1114
+ | this was because defaunation deprived C. axillaris of favorable regeneration sites,
1115
+ | since C. axillaris seems to depend on light gaps for regeneration and could not
1116
+ | disperse to gaps without its vertebrate disperser (Brodie et al. 2009). It was not a
1117
+ | consequence of distance-dependent or density-dependent mortality.
1118
+ meta | 24 CHAPTER 1: CASCADING EFFECTS OF DEFAUNATION ON TROPICAL PLANTS
1119
+ blank |
1120
+ |
1121
+ |
1122
+ title | COMMUNITY DIVERSITY
1123
+ blank |
1124
+ |
1125
+ text | SEEDLING DENSITY Seedling or herb density at the community level is consistently
1126
+ | higher where exclosure experiments (Ickes et al. 2001, Royo & Carson 2005) or
1127
+ | defaunation due to hunting and fragmentation (Dirzo & Miranda 1991) completely
1128
+ | eliminate vertebrate herbivory (Fig. 1.9). Interestingly, at many moderately
1129
+ | defaunated sites, community seedling densities are lower, relative to non-defaunated
1130
+ | sites. It may be that terrestrial herbivores initially increase in abundance as a
1131
+ | consequence of a release from predation, and perhaps competition. However,
1132
+ | decreased seedling densities at the community level are in contrast to higher seedling
1133
+ | densities of many individual species in defaunated sites (Fig. 1.8). This discrepancy
1134
+ | further highlights the need to understand how defaunation alters plant recruitment
1135
+ | across a broader range of species, and to reconcile changes in recruitment at the
1136
+ | species level with changes at the community-level.
1137
+ | Site & Source
1138
+ | Uganda (8) Forest comparison
1139
+ | Uganda (8) Exclosure study
1140
+ | Panama (38)
1141
+ | Bolivia (29)
1142
+ | Panama (30)
1143
+ | Peru (27)
1144
+ | Malaysia (21)
1145
+ | Panama (30)
1146
+ | Malaysia (21)
1147
+ | Mexico (12)
1148
+ | -100 -50 0 50 100 150
1149
+ | % Difference in Seedling Density
1150
+ blank |
1151
+ |
1152
+ text | FIGURE 1.9 Community level seedling and herb densities generally increase in
1153
+ | cases of high defaunation but decrease in others. Numbers in parentheses denote the
1154
+ | study number in Appendix 1.
1155
+ blank |
1156
+ |
1157
+ text | DIVERSITY Several short-term exclosure studies have shown that species richness
1158
+ | initially increases with herbivore removal (Fig. 1.10a). However, this appears to be an
1159
+ | effect of increased stem densities increasing the likelihood that rare species will be
1160
+ | present inside the exclosures. In an exclosure experiment in Panama, rare herbs
1161
+ meta | 25
1162
+ blank |
1163
+ |
1164
+ |
1165
+ text | increased 2-fold (Royo & Carson 2005) (Fig. 1.10b). However, defaunation also
1166
+ | appears to increase species dominance as well (Fig. 1.10b). Diversity indices appear
1167
+ | to mask the changes in community composition that occur in exclosure experiments,
1168
+ | because the effects of increased species richness and increased dominance tend to
1169
+ | cancel each other out, such that exclosures show only small decreases in indices of
1170
+ | diversity.
1171
+ | In forest comparisons, species richness was generally lower. Unlike short-term
1172
+ | exclosure experiments, defaunated forests have experienced decades of defaunation,
1173
+ | likely allowing competitively dominant plant species to outcompete rarer and less
1174
+ | dominant species, reducing diversity. Consistent with this hypothesis, species
1175
+ | dominance was higher in the cases that reported it (Fig. 1.10b). Responses in diversity
1176
+ | indices were mixed (Fig. 1.10c), again suggesting that these indices may be less
1177
+ | informative than directly evaluating changes in species richness and dominance.
1178
+ blank |
1179
+ |
1180
+ text | PLANT FUNCTIONAL GROUPS Nuñez-Iturri et al. (2007, 2008) and Wright et al.
1181
+ | (2007) both found little difference in total species richness between defaunated and
1182
+ | non-defaunated sites. However, the lack of differences in species richness belied
1183
+ | important changes in plant community composition. Species with abiotic or unhunted,
1184
+ | biotic dispersal agents consistently show higher abundance in hunted sites (Wright et
1185
+ | al. 2007, Nuñez-Iturri et al. 2008, Terborgh et al. 2008). In contrast, species dispersed
1186
+ | by game animals show decreased abundance in defaunated sites. Consistent with this
1187
+ | finding, lianas, which tend to be abiotically dispersed (Hardesty & Muller-Landau
1188
+ | 2005, Wright et al. 2007), were higher in relative abundance in defaunated sites in
1189
+ | central Panama (Wright et al. 2007).
1190
+ meta | 26 CHAPTER 1: CASCADING EFFECTS OF DEFAUNATION ON TROPICAL PLANTS
1191
+ blank |
1192
+ |
1193
+ text | Site & Source A Site & Source B
1194
+ | Mexico (12) Panama (30)
1195
+ | (game) Peru (28) Brazil (1)
1196
+ | (game) Peru (27) Panama (30)
1197
+ | Uganda (8) Panama (30)
1198
+ | Peru (28) Mexico (12)
1199
+ | Uganda (8) 100 200 500 600 700
1200
+ | 0
1201
+ | Bolivia (29) % Difference Species Dominance
1202
+ | Bolivia (29)
1203
+ | Site & Source C
1204
+ | Panama (38)
1205
+ | Mexico (12)
1206
+ | Peru (27)
1207
+ | Malaysia (21)
1208
+ | Malaysia (21)
1209
+ | Colombia (25)
1210
+ | Panama (30)
1211
+ | Panama (38)
1212
+ | (abiotic) Peru (28)
1213
+ | -80 -40 0 40
1214
+ | (non-game) Peru (27) % Difference in Diversity
1215
+ | Colombia (25)
1216
+ | (abiotic) Peru (27)
1217
+ blank |
1218
+ text | -75 -50 -25 0 25 50 75 Forest comparison
1219
+ | % Difference Species Richness Exclosure study
1220
+ blank |
1221
+ text | FIGURE 1.10 Diversity responses to defaunation. (a) species richness, (b) species
1222
+ | dominance, and (c) species diversity (Shannon-Weiner, Simpson, or Fisher’s α
1223
+ | indices). Peruvian richness differences are generally for groups with different dispersal
1224
+ | agents; dominance for the Panama study is similarly for subsets of common and rare
1225
+ | herbs. Numbers in parentheses denote the study number in Appendix 1.
1226
+ blank |
1227
+ |
1228
+ text | The studies found important differences in community seed mass responses.
1229
+ | In Peru, the relative abundance of large seeded species was lower in defaunated sites,
1230
+ | while in Panama, the community mean seed mass was higher in defaunated sites
1231
+ | (Wright et al. 2007, Nuñez-Iturri et al. 2008). The discrepancy appears to be due to
1232
+ | differences in faunal communities between Peru and Panama. In the Peruvian study,
1233
+ | defaunation greatly reduces populations of large primate dispersers, while not greatly
1234
+ | affecting the relatively low populations of seed predators such as agoutis. In contrast,
1235
+ | defaunation in Panama, defaunation greatly reduces agouti populations, but does not
1236
+ | greatly affect seed dispersal by large primates, as these animals are rare or absent even
1237
+ | in the non-defaunated sites.
1238
+ | Studies of the effects of defaunation effects on other functional traits are rare.
1239
+ | Both a forest comparison study in Panama and an exclosure study in Panama found
1240
+ meta | 27
1241
+ blank |
1242
+ |
1243
+ |
1244
+ text | that community median leaf mass per area and leaf laminar toughness in the seedling
1245
+ | community did not change in response to defaunation (Ch. 2). However, saplings (40-
1246
+ | 100 cm) in the exclosure experiment did have lower community mean leaf toughness,
1247
+ | and higher community mean leaf nitrogen relative to controls (Ch. 3). Wood density
1248
+ | was the only functional trait that had different responses to defaunation in the forest
1249
+ | comparison and exclosure studies. This is likely due to the fact that primary dispersal
1250
+ | is altered in the forest comparison, but not in the exclosure study (Ch. 2).
1251
+ blank |
1252
+ |
1253
+ title | WHAT IS DEFAUNATION?
1254
+ text | The heterogeneity in response to defaunation, particularly at the level of plant
1255
+ | population dynamics and community composition, suggest that more precision is
1256
+ | needed in characterizing exactly what is meant by defaunation, including its drivers
1257
+ | and the effects on the particular mammal community being studied. Among the
1258
+ | studies reported there, there was variation in the levels of defaunation in both “non-
1259
+ | defaunated” and “defaunated” forests across studies. In some cases, sites with similar
1260
+ | species compositions would be considered “non-defaunated” in one study, and
1261
+ | “defaunated” in another.
1262
+ | Unfortunately, terms such as “hunted”, “fragmented,” or “disturbed” are
1263
+ | usually used to classify sites into treatments, but do not correspond to a specific
1264
+ | change in a vertebrate community. This problem could be addressed by reporting a
1265
+ | robust characterization of the vertebrate community. Often, studies did not actually
1266
+ | report differences in either abundances of key species (e.g. a particular seed disperser)
1267
+ | or the vertebrate community as a whole. In other cases, the presence or absence of
1268
+ | species were reported, but not animal abundances. Reporting presence/absence data
1269
+ | will not capture situations in which animals such as rodents or smaller primates
1270
+ | actually increase in population size as defaunation reduces the predation and
1271
+ | competition they experience. In other cases, a species may be present, but in such rare
1272
+ | numbers so as to be functionally extinct.
1273
+ | Though estimating animal abundances is labor-intensive, we suggest that
1274
+ | further clarity and progress in understanding the effects of defaunation on plant
1275
+ meta | 28 CHAPTER 1: CASCADING EFFECTS OF DEFAUNATION ON TROPICAL PLANTS
1276
+ blank |
1277
+ |
1278
+ |
1279
+ text | communities will rely on exactly this level of precision in characterizing sites used in
1280
+ | comparative studies.
1281
+ blank |
1282
+ |
1283
+ title | HETEROGENEITY AMONG STUDIES
1284
+ blank |
1285
+ |
1286
+ text | Understanding the heterogeneity and sources of potential bias in the studies examined
1287
+ | here is important both for understanding the limitations and generality of the data, as
1288
+ | well as identifying areas for further research. Research on effects of defaunation on
1289
+ | plants has predominantly focused on Neotropical mammals. Over 70 percent of
1290
+ | studies were conducted in the Neotropics, while only 15 percent and 10 percent of
1291
+ | studies were conducted in Africa and Asia respectively, with the remaining 5 percent
1292
+ | conducted in Australia and Polynesia. As this review has demonstrated, responses to
1293
+ | defaunation can be quite variable even within the Neotropics, where faunal
1294
+ | communities are relatively similar. More studies in the Paleotropics are needed to
1295
+ | understand how plant responses to defaunation in these forests may differ from those
1296
+ | observed in Neotropical forests.
1297
+ | Only 15 percent of studies reported effects of avian defaunation, with the
1298
+ | remainder examining effects of mammalian defaunation. Many of those studies
1299
+ | focused on rodents and/or primates. Despite the fact that many of the larger
1300
+ | vertebrates such as peccaries, pigs, deer, tapir and elephants are most vulnerable to
1301
+ | defaunation, only a few studies investigated the effects of losing these animals from
1302
+ | the community. Future studies should seek to understand the impacts of losing
1303
+ | relatively understudied groups of vertebrates, as well as understanding how losses of
1304
+ | dispersers, seed predators, and herbivores may synergize.
1305
+ | It is also important to note that forest comparisons generally had low
1306
+ | replication. The majority of studies only had one non-defaunated site, and sometimes
1307
+ | only one defaunated site. We suggest that a better understanding of patterns and
1308
+ | mechanisms could come from increasing the number of study sites examined, and
1309
+ | including a range of defaunation intensities within a single study, with better
1310
+ | quantification of the differences in vertebrate communities. We suspect that many of
1311
+ meta | 29
1312
+ blank |
1313
+ |
1314
+ |
1315
+ text | the interactions and patterns discussed in this review do not vary linearly with animal
1316
+ | abundance, but rather, change in a step-wise or threshold dependent manner as key
1317
+ | interaction partners are removed from a system. Studying gradients of defaunation
1318
+ | intensity would allow scientists to better elucidate the levels of defaunation at which
1319
+ | changes in key interactions occur, and perhaps allow for the reconciliation of
1320
+ | discrepancies in responses among studies.
1321
+ blank |
1322
+ |
1323
+ title | CONCLUSIONS
1324
+ blank |
1325
+ |
1326
+ text | It is now well documented that larger-seeded species experience reduced dispersal,
1327
+ | and increased aggregation around parent trees as a result of defaunation. However the
1328
+ | overall consequences for species recruitment appear variable. More work is required
1329
+ | to link reduced dispersal to subsequent stages of the seedling recruitment process to
1330
+ | determine whether reduced dispersal poses a general threat to the persistence of large-
1331
+ | seeded species. Responses to defaunation at the community level are also variable,
1332
+ | and future studies should work to reconcile the changes observed that the species
1333
+ | interaction or population levels with changes in composition at the community level.
1334
+ meta | 30 CHAPTER 1: CASCADING EFFECTS OF DEFAUNATION ON TROPICAL PLANTS
1335
+ blank |
1336
+ |
1337
+ |
1338
+ text | APPENDIX 1.1 Reference information and raw data for response variables for studies
1339
+ | referenced in figures. Ndef = value for non-defaunated site(s); Def = Value for
1340
+ | defaunated site(s); % ∆ = Percent change from non-defaunated site to defaunated site.
1341
+ blank |
1342
+ |
1343
+ text | No Reference Site Response Variable Ndef Def %∆
1344
+ | 1 Alves-Costa (2004) Brazil Diaspores predated (%) 31.2 12.6 -60
1345
+ | 1 Alves-Costa (2004) Brazil Insect seed predation (near) 10.7 23.4 119
1346
+ | 1 Alves-Costa (2004) Brazil Insect seed predation (far) 1.6 24.2 1376
1347
+ | 1 Alves-Costa (2004) Brazil Seed density 0.16 0.18 8
1348
+ | 1 Alves-Costa (2004) Brazil Seedlings under parent 0.06 0.72 1187
1349
+ | 1 Alves-Costa (2004) Brazil Juvenile:Seedling (near) 2.33 1.16 -50
1350
+ | 1 Alves-Costa (2004) Brazil Juvenile:Seedling (far) 2.65 9.51 259
1351
+ | 1 Alves-Costa (2004) Brazil Seedling density 26.8 46.8 75
1352
+ | 1 Alves-Costa (2004) Brazil No. species/No. plants 0.23 0.14 -37
1353
+ | 1 Alves-Costa (2004) Brazil Frequency of low herbivory 24.1 40.0 66
1354
+ | 1 Alves-Costa (2004) Brazil No. new plants 41.2 118.4 187
1355
+ | 1 Alves-Costa (2004) Brazil Seedling mortality (%) 40.1 42.7 6
1356
+ | 2 Andresen (2003) Brazil % Pouteria seeds buried 40 32.5 -19
1357
+ | 2 Andresen (2003) Brazil % Pourouma seeds buried 36 19 -47
1358
+ | 3 Asquith et al. (1997) Panama Seed removal 0.01 0.05 900
1359
+ | 3 Asquith et al. (1997) Panama Seedling survival 0.21 0.07 -69
1360
+ | 3 Asquith et al. (1997) Panama Seed removal 0.01 0.08 700
1361
+ | 3 Asquith et al. (1997) Panama Seed dispersal 0.56 0.24 -58
1362
+ | 3 Asquith et al. (1997) Panama Seedling survival 0.49 0.22 -56
1363
+ | 3 Asquith et al. (1997) Panama Seed removal 0.00 0.00 0
1364
+ | 3 Asquith et al. (1997) Panama Seed dispersal 0.54 0.19 -65
1365
+ | 3 Asquith et al. (1997) Panama Seedling survival 0.00 0.00 0
1366
+ | 4 Asquith et al. (1999) Venezuela Pod removal 1.00 0.14 -86
1367
+ | 4 Asquith et al. (1999) Venezuela Seed removal 0.92 0.60 -35
1368
+ | 4 Asquith et al. (1999) Venezuela Seed caching 0.17 0.00 -100
1369
+ | 4 Asquith et al. (1999) Venezuela Seed density under parent 4.0 100.0 2400
1370
+ | 4 Asquith et al. (1999) Venezuela Seedling density under parent 22.0 1.8 -92
1371
+ | 5 Babweteera et al. (2007) Gabon Juvenile density 85 1169 1275
1372
+ | 5 Babweteera et al. (2007) Gabon Sapling:Seedling 0.21 0.00 -98
1373
+ | 5 Babweteera et al. (2007) Gabon Pole:Seedling 0.08 0.01 -92
1374
+ | 5 Babweteera et al. (2007) Gabon Prob. Juvenile's under conspecific 58.0 89.0 53
1375
+ | 6 Beckman & Muller-Landau (2007) Panama Primary seed removal 42.0 24.1 -43
1376
+ | 6 Beckman & Muller-Landau (2007) Panama Predispersal seed predation 55.0 25.0 -55
1377
+ | 6 Beckman & Muller-Landau (2007) Panama Secondary seed removal 0.0 10.6 100
1378
+ | 6 Beckman & Muller-Landau (2007) Panama Primary seed removal 21.6 14.6 -32
1379
+ | 6 Beckman & Muller-Landau (2007) Panama Predispersal seed predation 7.0 7.0 0
1380
+ | 6 Beckman & Muller-Landau (2007) Panama Predispersal seed predation 20.0 0.0 -100
1381
+ | 6 Beckman & Muller-Landau (2007) Panama Secondary seed removal 80.0 10.8 -87
1382
+ | 7 Brodie et al. (2009) Thailand Proportion fruits under adults 0.19 0.68 252
1383
+ | 7 Brodie et al. (2009) Thailand Seeds dispersed 0.15 0.01 -91
1384
+ | 8 Chapman & Onderdonk (1998) Uganda Seedling density, non-valley sites 12.5 5.5 -56
1385
+ | 8 Chapman & Onderdonk (1998) Uganda Seedling richness, non-valley sites 5.0 3.1 -39
1386
+ | 8 Chapman & Onderdonk (1998) Uganda Seedling density, valley bottom 2.5 1.3 -50
1387
+ meta | 31
1388
+ blank |
1389
+ |
1390
+ |
1391
+ text | 8 Chapman & Onderdonk (1998) Uganda Seedling richness, valley bottom 1.3 1.0 -23
1392
+ | 9 Cordeiro and Howe (2003) Tanzania Seed dispersal 12.8 3.0 -76
1393
+ | Proportion indiv under adults
1394
+ | 9 Cordeiro and Howe (2003) Tanzania (<10 m) 57.3 88.5 54
1395
+ | 9 Cordeiro and Howe (2003) Tanzania Juvenile:Seedling 0.4 0.3 -27
1396
+ | 9 Cordeiro and Howe (2003) Tanzania Seedling abundance 163.7 96.7 -41
1397
+ | 10 Cramer et al. (2007) Brazil Seeds dispersed 48.0 16.0 -67
1398
+ | 10 Cramer et al. (2007) Brazil Seeds dispersed 5.0 12.0 140
1399
+ | 10 Cramer et al. (2007) Brazil Ave. dispersal distance 7.5 3.0 -60
1400
+ | 10 Cramer et al. (2007) Brazil Ave. dispersal distance 23.0 18.0 -22
1401
+ | 10 Cramer et al. (2007) Brazil Max. dipersal distance 20.0 4.0 -80
1402
+ | 10 Cramer et al. (2007) Brazil Max. dipersal distance 17.0 18.0 6
1403
+ | 10 Cramer et al. (2007) Brazil Seeds away from parent 27.0 1.0 -96
1404
+ | 10 Cramer et al. (2007) Brazil Seeds away from parent 8.0 6.0 -25
1405
+ | 11 DeMattia et al. (2004) Costa Rica Seeds destroyed 100.0 93.6 -6
1406
+ | 11 DeMattia et al. (2004) Costa Rica Seeds destroyed 68.8 65.6 -5
1407
+ | 11 DeMattia et al. (2004) Costa Rica Seeds destroyed 100.0 84.1 -16
1408
+ | 11 DeMattia et al. (2004) Costa Rica Seeds destroyed 31.2 15.6 -50
1409
+ | 11 DeMattia et al. (2004) Costa Rica Seeds destroyed 93.8 75.0 -20
1410
+ | 11 DeMattia et al. (2004) Costa Rica Seeds destroyed 28.0 12.2 -57
1411
+ | 11 DeMattia et al. (2004) Costa Rica Seeds destroyed 18.5 24.5 33
1412
+ | 11 DeMattia et al. (2004) Costa Rica Seeds cached 25.0 3.1 -88
1413
+ | 11 DeMattia et al. (2004) Costa Rica Seeds cached 3.07 9.22 200
1414
+ | 12 Dirzo & Miranda (1991) Mexico Herbivory 0.27 0.00 -100
1415
+ | 12 Dirzo & Miranda (1991) Mexico Seedling density 22.6 52.8 134
1416
+ | 12 Dirzo & Miranda (1991) Mexico Seedling species richness 6.65 2.30 -65
1417
+ | 12 Dirzo & Miranda (1991) Mexico Seedling diversity 3.71 1.07 -71
1418
+ | 12 Dirzo & Miranda (1991) Mexico Seedling species dominance 14.0 2.0 -86
1419
+ | 13 Donatti et al. (2009) Brazil Seeds predated 0.18 0.03 -83
1420
+ | 13 Donatti et al. (2009) Brazil Seeds cached 0.33 0.13 -61
1421
+ | 14 Fadini et al. (2009) Brazil Seed dispersal 1.6 0.9 -42
1422
+ | 14 Fadini et al. (2009) Brazil Seed predation 99.7 7.4 -93
1423
+ | 14 Fadini et al. (2009) Brazil Seedling density 1000 80 -92
1424
+ | 15 Farwig et al. (2006) Kenya seed removal 0.97 1.57 62
1425
+ | 16 Fleury & Galetti (2006) Brazil Seed predation 15.8 48.0 203
1426
+ | 16 Fleury & Galetti (2006) Brazil Seed predation 15.8 0.0 -100
1427
+ | 17 Galetti et al. (2006) Brazil Seed predation (%) 6.9 0.3 -96
1428
+ | 17 Galetti et al. (2006) Brazil Seed caching (%) 12.2 3.4 -72
1429
+ | 17 Galetti et al. (2006) Brazil Seed predation (%) 38.4 2.0 -95
1430
+ | 17 Galetti et al. (2006) Brazil Seed predation (%) 34.4 69.6 102
1431
+ | 17 Galetti et al. (2006) Brazil Seedling density 148.2 34.5 -77
1432
+ | 17 Galetti et al. (2006) Brazil Seedling:Adult 6.96 0.35 -95
1433
+ | 17 Galetti et al. (2006) Brazil Sapling:Seedling 1.98 10.07 409
1434
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Secondary seed removal 0.41 0.13 -67
1435
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Secondary seed removal 0.31 0.37 20
1436
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Secondary seed removal 0.88 0.94 7
1437
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Secondary seed removal 0.59 0.91 56
1438
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Secondary seed removal 0.66 0.88 33
1439
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Secondary seed removal 0.87 0.38 -56
1440
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Secondary seed removal 0.98 0.40 -59
1441
+ meta | 32 CHAPTER 1: CASCADING EFFECTS OF DEFAUNATION ON TROPICAL PLANTS
1442
+ blank |
1443
+ |
1444
+ |
1445
+ text | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Secondary seed predation 0.41 0.13 -67
1446
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Secondary seed predation 0.31 0.37 20
1447
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Secondary seed predation 0.77 0.91 18
1448
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Secondary seed predation 0.55 0.91 64
1449
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Secondary seed predation 0.57 0.78 38
1450
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Secondary seed predation 0.73 0.38 -48
1451
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Secondary seed predation 0.95 0.40 -58
1452
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Seed caching 0.00 0.00 0
1453
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Seed caching 0.00 0.00 0
1454
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Seed caching 0.03 0.11 300
1455
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Seed caching 0.01 0.03 400
1456
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Seed caching 0.10 0.09 -7
1457
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Seed caching 0.00 0.13 100
1458
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Seed caching 0.00 0.03 100
1459
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Tertiary seed removal/predation 0.50 0.81 63
1460
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Tertiary seed removal/predation 1.00 0.80 -20
1461
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Tertiary seed removal/predation 1.00 1.00 0
1462
+ | 18 Guariguata et al. (2000) Costa Rica Seedling survival 0.00 0.07 100
1463
+ | 19 Guariguata et al. (2002) Costa Rica Seeds dispersed 0.11 0.03 17
1464
+ | 19 Guariguata et al. (2002) Costa Rica Seeds dispersed 0.00 0.02 -67
1465
+ | 20 Holbrook & Loiselle (2009) Ecuador Seeds removed (primary) 89.4 66.8 -25
1466
+ | 21 Ickes, K., et al. 2001. Malaysia Seedlings 75.5 117.5 56
1467
+ | 21 Ickes, K., et al. 2001. Malaysia Sapling density 107.1 142.3 33
1468
+ | 21 Ickes, K., et al. 2001. Malaysia Mortality 10.0 8.7 -13
1469
+ | 21 Ickes, K., et al. 2001. Malaysia Recruits 14.9 48.8 228
1470
+ | 21 Ickes, K., et al. 2001. Malaysia Species richness 50.6 55.7 10
1471
+ | 21 Ickes, K., et al. 2001. Malaysia Diversity 45.8 39.7 -13
1472
+ | 21 Ickes, K., et al. 2001. Malaysia Liana proportion of stems 25.9 30.5 18
1473
+ | 22 Kirika et al. (2008) Uganda Seed dispersal 14124 3714 -74
1474
+ | 23 Kurten (2010a) Panama seed mass 0.21 0.32 58
1475
+ | 23 Kurten (2010a) Panama SLA 20.0 22.4 12
1476
+ | 23 Kurten (2010a) Panama Leaf toughness 1.49 1.49 0
1477
+ | 23 Kurten (2010a) Panama Wood density 0.65 0.64 -2
1478
+ | 24 Kurten (2010b) Panama Secondary seed predation 0.50 0.81 63
1479
+ | 24 Kurten (2010b) Panama Secondary seed predation 0.90 0.85 -5
1480
+ | 24 Kurten (2010b) Panama Secondary seed predation 0.53 0.11 -79
1481
+ | 24 Kurten (2010b) Panama Secondary seed predation 0.00 0.00 0
1482
+ | 24 Kurten (2010b) Panama Seed caching 1.16 1.33 15
1483
+ | 24 Kurten (2010b) Panama Seed caching 0.83 1.16 40
1484
+ | 25 Lizcano (2006) Colombia Richness 8.02 11.24 40
1485
+ | 25 Lizcano (2006) Colombia Shannon Index 0.82 0.75 -9
1486
+ | 26 McConkey & Drake (2006) Tonga Seed dispersal 0.34 0.03 -90
1487
+ | 27 Nuñez-Iturri et al. (2007) Peru Sapling richness - total 47.4 50.4 6
1488
+ | 27 Nuñez-Iturri et al. (2007) Peru Sapling richness -large mammal 16.6 7.8 -53
1489
+ | 27 Nuñez-Iturri et al. (2007) Peru Sapling richness - nongame 27.1 36.6 35
1490
+ | 27 Nuñez-Iturri et al. (2007) Peru Sapling richness - abiotic 3.70 6.00 62
1491
+ | 27 Nuñez-Iturri et al. (2007) Peru Sapling density - total 78.3 90.0 15
1492
+ | 27 Nuñez-Iturri et al. (2007) Peru Sapling density -large mammal 26.8 11.3 -58
1493
+ | 27 Nuñez-Iturri et al. (2007) Peru Sapling density - nongame 45.5 67.8 49
1494
+ meta | 33
1495
+ blank |
1496
+ |
1497
+ |
1498
+ text | 27 Nuñez-Iturri et al. (2007) Peru Sapling density - abiotic 5.91 10.98 86
1499
+ | 28 Nuñez-Iturri et al. (2008) Peru Species richness (primate disp) 1.60 0.60 -63
1500
+ | 28 Nuñez-Iturri et al. (2008) Peru Species richness (abiotic disp) 1.40 1.80 29
1501
+ | 28 Nuñez-Iturri et al. (2008) Peru Species richness 145 100 -31
1502
+ | 28 Nuñez-Iturri et al. (2008) Peru Density (primate disp) 1.90 0.90 -53
1503
+ | 28 Nuñez-Iturri et al. (2008) Peru Density (abiotic) 3.60 11.30 214
1504
+ | 29 Roldan & Simonetti (2001) Bolivia Seed predation 0.43 0.64 49
1505
+ | 29 Roldan & Simonetti (2001) Bolivia Trampling survival 0.78 0.90 15
1506
+ | 29 Roldan & Simonetti (2001) Bolivia Seedling density 4.21 3.92 -7
1507
+ | 29 Roldan & Simonetti (2001) Bolivia Species richness 35.0 34.0 -3
1508
+ | 29 Roldan & Simonetti (2001) Bolivia Seedling spp:Adult spp 0.61 0.59 -5
1509
+ | 29 Roldan & Simonetti (2001) Bolivia Seedling composition 4.21 3.92 -7
1510
+ | 30 Royo & Carson (2005) Panama Species richness 16.8 13.1 -22
1511
+ | 30 Royo & Carson (2005) Panama Herb Density 1.21 1.19 -2
1512
+ | 30 Royo & Carson (2005) Panama Density dominants 0.42 0.35 -17
1513
+ | 30 Royo & Carson (2005) Panama Density rare 0.34 0.16 -53
1514
+ | 30 Royo & Carson (2005) Panama Cover 7.90 5.90 -25
1515
+ | 30 Royo & Carson (2005) Panama Cover of dominants 2.65 1.50 -43
1516
+ | 31 Sethi & Howe (2009) India Total seedlings 2.55 0.76 -70
1517
+ | 31 Sethi & Howe (2009) India Seedlings under parent 0.37 0.60 64
1518
+ | 31 Sethi & Howe (2009) India Seedlings away from parent 2.19 0.16 -93
1519
+ | 31 Sethi & Howe (2009) India Total seedlings 2.17 0.81 -62
1520
+ | 31 Sethi & Howe (2009) India Seedlings under parent 0.99 0.35 -65
1521
+ | 31 Sethi & Howe (2009) India Seedlings away from parent 1.18 0.46 -61
1522
+ | 31 Sethi & Howe (2009) India Total seedlings 4.16 0.81 -80
1523
+ | 31 Sethi & Howe (2009) India Seedlings under parent 2.96 0.58 -81
1524
+ | 31 Sethi & Howe (2009) India Seedlings away from parent 1.20 0.24 -80
1525
+ | 32 Sork (1987) Panama Secondary seed predation 0.94 0.41 -56
1526
+ | 32 Sork (1987) Panama seedling survival 0.69 0.97 42
1527
+ | Peru/
1528
+ | 33 Terborgh & Wright (1994) Panama Seed predation 0.35 0.82 136
1529
+ | Peru/
1530
+ | 33 Terborgh & Wright (1994) Panama Seedling density 38.3 29.3 -23
1531
+ | Peru/
1532
+ | 33 Terborgh & Wright (1994) Panama Seedling recruitment 0.25 0.96 276
1533
+ | Peru/
1534
+ | 33 Terborgh & Wright (1994) Panama Seedling mortality 0.20 0.29 43
1535
+ | 34 Terborgh et al. (2008) Peru Recruit. Bird dispersed 0.23 0.24 4
1536
+ | 34 Terborgh et al. (2008) Peru Recruit. Bat dispersed 0.10 0.11 16
1537
+ | 34 Terborgh et al. (2008) Peru Recruit. Lg. primate dispersed 0.25 0.19 -24
1538
+ | Recruit. Sm. arboreal mammal
1539
+ | 34 Terborgh et al. (2008) Peru dispersed 0.33 0.24 -26
1540
+ | Recruit. Terrestrial mammal
1541
+ | 34 Terborgh et al. (2008) Peru dispersed 0.04 0.02 -50
1542
+ | 34 Terborgh et al. (2008) Peru Recruit. Wind disp. 0.05 0.17 278
1543
+ | 35 Wang et al. (2007) Cameroon Diaspore under adult 10.0 50.0 400
1544
+ | 35 Wang et al. (2007) Cameroon Seed dispersal 0.98 0.58 -41
1545
+ | 36 Wright et al. (2000) Panama Seed predation 90.8 47.7 -47
1546
+ | 36 Wright et al. (2000) Panama Seed predation 0.03 0.34 1033
1547
+ | 36 Wright et al. (2000) Panama Seed density under parent 180 2749 1427
1548
+ | 36 Wright et al. (2000) Panama Seed density away from parent 2.65 1.79 -32
1549
+ | 36 Wright et al. (2000) Panama Prop. seeds dispersed 0.93 0.39 -58
1550
+ meta | 34 CHAPTER 1: CASCADING EFFECTS OF DEFAUNATION ON TROPICAL PLANTS
1551
+ blank |
1552
+ |
1553
+ |
1554
+ text | 36 Wright et al. (2000) Panama Seedling density 0.0 0.0 300
1555
+ | 36 Wright et al. (2000) Panama Seedlings:Adult 11.0 28.9 163
1556
+ | 36 Wright et al. (2000) Panama Seed predation 91.7 21.7 -76
1557
+ | 36 Wright et al. (2000) Panama Seed predation 0.1 0.3 460
1558
+ | 36 Wright et al. (2000) Panama Seed density under parent 910 1290 42
1559
+ | 36 Wright et al. (2000) Panama Seed density away from parent 4.4 2.8 -37
1560
+ | 36 Wright et al. (2000) Panama Prop. seeds dispersed 0.9 0.1 -93
1561
+ | 36 Wright et al. (2000) Panama Seedling density 0.1 0.2 129
1562
+ | 36 Wright et al. (2000) Panama Seedlings:Adult 113.8 92.5 -19
1563
+ | 37 Wright et al. (2001) Panama Seed density under parent tree 24.6 35.7 46
1564
+ | 37 Wright et al. (2001) Panama Seed density away from parent 0.9 0.2 -81
1565
+ | tree
1566
+ | 37 Wright et al. (2001) Panama Seedling density under parent 0.0 0.1 282
1567
+ | Seedling density away from
1568
+ | 37 Wright et al. (2001) Panama parent 0.0 0.1 282
1569
+ | 37 Wright et al. (2001) Panama Seedling density (total) 0.0 0.1 282
1570
+ | 37 Wright et al. (2001) Panama Seed predation-rodents 0.8 0.4 -46
1571
+ | 37 Wright et al. (2001) Panama Seed predation-bruchid 0.1 0.4 266
1572
+ | 38 Wright et al. (2007) Panama Community mean seed mass 90 100 11
1573
+ | 38 Wright et al. (2007) Panama Prop. seedlings (hunted disperser) 0.7 0.4 -40
1574
+ | 38 Wright et al. (2007) Panama Prop. seedlings (unhunted 0.2 0.4 75
1575
+ | disperser)
1576
+ | 38 Wright et al. (2007) Panama Proportion lianas 0.1 0.4 150
1577
+ | 38 Wright et al. (2007) Panama Seedling density 15.2 9.4 -38
1578
+ | 38 Wright et al. (2007) Panama Seedling Richness 70.7 69.8 -1
1579
+ | 38 Wright et al. (2007) Panama Seedling S-W Diversity 2.6 3.2 23
1580
+ meta | 35
1581
+ blank |
1582
+ |
1583
+ |
1584
+ |
1585
+ title | Chapter 2
1586
+ blank |
1587
+ text | Reduced seed dispersal as a
1588
+ | consequence of hunting lowers
1589
+ | community-level wood density in a
1590
+ | Neotropical forest
1591
+ | Authors: Erin L. Kurten, S. Joseph Wright, Andrés Hernandéz , Walter P. Carson
1592
+ blank |
1593
+ title | Abstract
1594
+ blank |
1595
+ text | Defaunation alters interactions between plants and their seed dispersers and predators,
1596
+ | and is sometimes associated with decreased diversity at the community level. A more
1597
+ | cryptic plant response to defaunation is an altered distribution of life histories and
1598
+ | functional traits in the community. In this study, we censused 12,769 seedlings in a
1599
+ | long-term terrestrial mammal exclosure experiment (LTEE) in Central Panama to
1600
+ | examine how vertebrate seed dispersers and seed predators shape relative abundances
1601
+ | of species classified by dispersal mode, growth forms, seed mass, leaf mass per area
1602
+ | (LMA), leaf toughness, and wood density. We then compared exclosure results with
1603
+ | data from a natural comparison of 38,250 seedlings in nearby hunted and unhunted
1604
+ | sites. The exclosure experiment excludes terrestrial seed predators and herbivores but
1605
+ | not seed dispersers such as primates, birds, and bats. In contrast, the hunting
1606
+ meta | 36 CHAPTER 2: CONSEQUENCES OF HUNTING FOR SEED DISPERSAL AND WOOD DENSITY
1607
+ blank |
1608
+ |
1609
+ |
1610
+ text | comparison reduces the abundance of all three groups. We tested the hypotheses that
1611
+ | (1) where seed dispersal is disrupted, species with unhunted dispersal modes, and
1612
+ | lianas, which are abiotically dispersed, are favored, (2) where seed predation is
1613
+ | reduced, larger-seed plant species are favored, and (3) where herbivory is reduced,
1614
+ | species with lower LMA, leaf toughness, and wood density are favored. Consistent
1615
+ | with our expectations, dispersal-driven changes in the relative abundance of growth
1616
+ | forms or dispersal mode classes were not observed in the terrestrial mammal exclosure
1617
+ | experiment, while higher median seed mass as a consequence of reduced seed
1618
+ | predation was observed. In contrast to our hypothesis, leaf functional traits did not
1619
+ | differ as a consequence of defaunation either in the forest comparison or in the LTEE.
1620
+ | Interestingly, wood density responses differed between our two experiments. Species
1621
+ | dispersed by mammals and large birds had significantly higher mean wood density
1622
+ | than wind dispersed species, suggesting that seed dispersal, rather than seedling
1623
+ | herbivory, may mediate decreases in community median wood density in hunted
1624
+ | forests.
1625
+ blank |
1626
+ title | Introduction
1627
+ blank |
1628
+ text | Over-hunting has caused severe declines, and even local extirpations, of hunted
1629
+ | wildlife populations in tropical forests throughout Latin America (Peres & Palacios
1630
+ | 2007), Africa (Fa & Brown 2009), and Asia (Corlett 2007). Defaunation perturbs
1631
+ | plant interactions with the frugivores, granivores, and herbivores that play critical
1632
+ | roles in establishing the composition and spatial distribution of seedlings in tropical
1633
+ | forest seedling banks. Reduced seed dispersal in hunted forests results in higher
1634
+ | proportions of undispersed seeds under parent trees of species reliant on hunted biotic
1635
+ | dispersal agents (Wright & Duber 2001, Cordiero & Howe 2003, Babweteera et al
1636
+ | 2007, Sethi & Howe 2009). Vertebrate seed predation rates may increase or decrease,
1637
+ | depending on the severity of defaunation and the size of the seeds and seed predators
1638
+ | affected (Guariguata et al. 2000, Galetti et al. 2006, Dirzo et al. 2007). Vertebrate
1639
+ | herbivory rates can also be drastically reduced (Dirzo and Miranda 1991). The net
1640
+ | effect of these perturbations can be the loss of plant diversity (Dirzo and Miranda
1641
+ meta | 37
1642
+ blank |
1643
+ |
1644
+ |
1645
+ text | 1991, Chapman & Onderdonk 1998), with up to 66% of species failing to recruit in the
1646
+ | most extreme case documented.
1647
+ | Other important changes may also be occurring in the plant community even if
1648
+ | species richness is unaffected. Species with hunted dispersal agents, such as primates
1649
+ | or large birds, consistently decrease in abundance in hunted forests, while species with
1650
+ | abiotic or unhunted dispersal agents increase (Wright et al. 2007b, Nuñez-Iturri et al.
1651
+ | 2008, Terborgh et al. 2008). Lianas, the majority of which are abiotically dispersed in
1652
+ | this forest (Hardesty & Muller-Landau 2005), also increase in abundance in hunted
1653
+ | sites (Wright et al. 2007b). Where dispersal of large, primate-dispersed seeds is
1654
+ | disrupted by local extirpation of ateline monkeys, the relative abundance of those plant
1655
+ | species is lower than in sites where ateline monkeys are present (Nuñez-Iturri et al.
1656
+ | 2008). In sites where hunting decreases rodent seed predator populations, the median
1657
+ | seed mass of the seedling community is higher than in unhunted sites (Wright et al.
1658
+ | 2007b).
1659
+ | In this study, our first goal was to move beyond investigations of dispersal
1660
+ | mode classes and seed mass to examine the effect of defaunation on other functional
1661
+ | traits. Lower abundances of browsers and other seedling predators in hunted sites
1662
+ | should lead to reduced vertebrate herbivory and seedling predation. Leaf mass per
1663
+ | unit area (LMA), low leaf laminar toughness (hereafter referred to as “toughness”),
1664
+ | and wood density are correlated with palatability to vertebrates or seedling survival
1665
+ | (Wardle et al. 2002, Alvarez-Clare & Kitajima 2007). We hypothesized that species
1666
+ | with low leaf area per unit mass, low leaf laminar toughness, and lower wood density
1667
+ | should be favored in hunted sites.
1668
+ | A weakness of many forest comparison studies in defaunation work is that they
1669
+ | lack replication of hunted and unhunted forests. Even when there is replication,
1670
+ | differences in climate, soils, forest age, fragmentation or other anthropogenic factors
1671
+ | may covary with hunting intensity in comparative studies, making it difficult to
1672
+ | attribute the patterns observed to hunting alone. Therefore, a second goal of this study
1673
+ | was to validate results from forest comparisons with data from a long-term exclosure
1674
+ | experiment (LTEE). We conducted this study in Central Panama, where a hunting
1675
+ meta | 38 CHAPTER 2: CONSEQUENCES OF HUNTING FOR SEED DISPERSAL AND WOOD DENSITY
1676
+ blank |
1677
+ |
1678
+ |
1679
+ text | defaunation gradient has been previously documented (Wright et al. 2007b). Within
1680
+ | the unhunted, protected sites, a terrestrial mammal exclosure experiment has been
1681
+ | ongoing for the past fifteen years (Royo & Carson 2005).
1682
+ | Because hunting typically disrupts multiple plant-animal interactions
1683
+ | simultaneously, it can be difficult to determine the relative influence of lost seed
1684
+ | dispersers, seed predators, or herbivores on resulting seedling communities in
1685
+ | comparative studies. A third goal of this study was to improve the extent to which
1686
+ | changes in the seedling community could be attributed to changes in particular
1687
+ | interactions. Unlike the hunted forest comparison, our LTEE excludes terrestrial seed
1688
+ | predators and herbivores from exclosure plots, but does not alter the abundance of
1689
+ | primary dispersal agents such as primates and most large birds. By comparing results
1690
+ | between the forest comparison and exclosure approaches, we can identify which
1691
+ | changes in the seedling community are due to changes in seed dispersal and which are
1692
+ | due to changes in seed or seedling predation. .
1693
+ | We predicted that seedling communities in exclosures would have higher
1694
+ | median seed massas a consequence of lower seed predation, consistent with the forest
1695
+ | comparison (Wright et al. 2007). In contrast to the forest comparison experiment, we
1696
+ | predicted the LTEE would not show differences in the relative abundances of dispersal
1697
+ | mode classes or growth forms. We expected that median LMA, toughness and wood
1698
+ | density would be lower in exclosure plots relative to paired plots open to terrestrial
1699
+ | mammals, and in hunted forests relative to unhunted forests, as a consequence of
1700
+ | reduced herbivory.
1701
+ blank |
1702
+ |
1703
+ title | Methods
1704
+ blank |
1705
+ |
1706
+ text | Study sites. The Barro Colorado National Monument (BCNM) is a group of islands
1707
+ | and mainland peninsulas located in Lake Gatun in the Republic of Panama. Because
1708
+ | of forest guard patrol and researcher presence, activity of poachers is virtually
1709
+ | nonexistent on Barro Colorado Island (BCI) itself and is highly reduced on Gigante
1710
+ | (GIG) and other peninsulas. The Parque Nacional Soberanía (PNS) is a protected area
1711
+ meta | 39
1712
+ blank |
1713
+ |
1714
+ |
1715
+ text | contiguous with the BCNM, which is not actively patrolled. Intensity of poaching
1716
+ | within the PNS varies with accessibility, but is much greater than within the BCNM
1717
+ | (Wright et al. 2000).
1718
+ blank |
1719
+ |
1720
+ text | Exclosure experimental design. Between late-1993 and mid-1994, eight pairs of
1721
+ | fenced, exclosure plots and open, control plots were established within the BCNM
1722
+ | (Royo & Carson 2005). Paired fenced and unfenced plots are 30 m x 45 m and are
1723
+ | approximately 5 m apart. Exclosure fences are constructed of 12.7 x 12.7 cm
1724
+ | galvanized steel fencing 2.2 m tall and buried 0.25 m deep. A secondary 1.3 x 1.3 cm
1725
+ | mesh surrounds the lower 70 cm and also extends 0.25 m below ground. Twenty-
1726
+ | eight 0.5 x 0.5 m subplots were established in each of the 16 plots in a stratified
1727
+ | random fashion to census seedlings. To avoid fence effects, no subplots were
1728
+ | established within a 5-7 m buffer zone of a plot edge. Within each subplot, each plant
1729
+ | less than 50 cm in height was tagged, measured, and identified. Seedling census data
1730
+ | were collected in 2006.
1731
+ blank |
1732
+ |
1733
+ text | Exclosure effectiveness. To assess differences in the animal communities between
1734
+ | open and exclosure treatments, Reconyx RC-55 infrared cameras (Reconyx, Inc.,
1735
+ | Holmen, WI) were used to monitor mammal activity in the 16 plots between August
1736
+ | and October 2008. Each plot was monitored at 6-7 locations, for a total of 41 camera
1737
+ | trap days per plot. A camera trigger was counted as a new “visit” if (1) it was a
1738
+ | different species than the prior trigger, or (2) if 60 minutes had elapsed between
1739
+ | triggers (Di Bitetti et al. 2008). We chose this method of quantification because
1740
+ | unmarked individuals of most mammals in this community cannot be distinguished by
1741
+ | photograph, and because this measure of activity likely describes animal impact on
1742
+ | each plot more accurately than abundance. Because it was difficult to accurately
1743
+ | count individuals for social animals such as peccaries (Tayassu tajacu) and coatis
1744
+ | (Nasua narica), activity by these species was analyzed as the number of visits by
1745
+ | social groups rather than visits by individuals.
1746
+ meta | 40 CHAPTER 2: CONSEQUENCES OF HUNTING FOR SEED DISPERSAL AND WOOD DENSITY
1747
+ blank |
1748
+ |
1749
+ |
1750
+ text | Hunting intensity comparison. At 9 protected sites (BCNM) and 11 intensely hunted
1751
+ | sites (PNS), all adult trees larger than 20 cm diameter at breast height (dbh) within a 1
1752
+ | ha plot were mapped and identified by Condit et al. (2002) and Wright et al. (2007b).
1753
+ | Between June and December 2004, all woody plants less than 50 cm tall in an 8 x 8 m
1754
+ | subplot were censused by Wright et al. (2007b). Seedling plots were at the center of
1755
+ | each tree plot, or as close as possible in three plots in which tree falls occurred
1756
+ | between adult and seedling censuses. A total of 38250 individuals comprising 312
1757
+ | identified species were recorded (Wright et al. 2007b).
1758
+ blank |
1759
+ |
1760
+ text | Plant traits. Wright et al. (2010) determined life history traits, dry seed mass, leaf
1761
+ | mass per area (LMA), laminar toughness, and wood density for species in central
1762
+ | Panama. In this study, dry seed mass was measured as endosperm plus embryo mass
1763
+ | after oven drying to constant mass at 60ºC. Leaf mass per unit area was measured on
1764
+ | shade leaves as the mass of a standard-sized leaf disc after oven drying to constant
1765
+ | mass at 60ºC divided by the area of the disc. Laminar toughness was measured as the
1766
+ | force necessary to cut across a leaf, perpendicular to the midvein (Lucas et al. 2000).
1767
+ | Wood specific gravity, or mass after drying at 100ºC per unit volume, was used as the
1768
+ | unit of wood density. Data on dispersal agents have been assembled from published
1769
+ | studies and long-term personal observations.
1770
+ blank |
1771
+ |
1772
+ text | Analyses. We used a MANOVA to test whether mammal activity differed between
1773
+ | open and control plots for each vertebrate species observed. Paired t-tests were used
1774
+ | to test for differences in the relative abundance of growth forms, dispersal mode
1775
+ | classes, and functional traits. For the hunting comparison, an ANCOVA was used to
1776
+ | determine whether the correspondence of functional traits between seedling and adult
1777
+ | communities differed with hunting. Statistical analyses were performed with SYSTAT
1778
+ | © 11.0 (Richmond, CA, U.S.A.) and R version 2.7.2 (R Development Core Team,
1779
+ | 2008).
1780
+ meta | 41
1781
+ blank |
1782
+ |
1783
+ |
1784
+ title | Results
1785
+ blank |
1786
+ |
1787
+ text | EXCLOSURE EFFECTIVENESS. Fenced plots excluded non-climbing, terrestrial
1788
+ | granivores and herbivores from exclosures, including agoutis (Dasyprocta punctata),
1789
+ | paca (Agouti paca), deer (Mazama Americana and Odocoileus virginianus), and
1790
+ | peccaries (T. tajacu) (Fig. 1). Most climbing animals appeared to be undeterred by the
1791
+ | exclosure treatment. Spiny rats (Proechimys steerei) showed higher activity in
1792
+ | exclosures than controls, perhaps responding to a lack of competition for food, greater
1793
+ | cover, or a reduction in ocelet abundance (Felis pardalis) in the exclosures. Most
1794
+ | birds were not affected by the exclosures, a notable exception being tinamous, which
1795
+ | are seed predators (Erand et al. 1991).
1796
+ blank |
1797
+ |
1798
+ text | 0
1799
+ | Agouti ***
1800
+ blank |
1801
+ text | 0 20 40 60 80 100
1802
+ blank |
1803
+ text | Anteater
1804
+ | 0
1805
+ | Armadillo
1806
+ | 0
1807
+ | Capuchin
1808
+ | Coati†
1809
+ | 0
1810
+ | Deer
1811
+ | 0
1812
+ | Mouse
1813
+ | 0
1814
+ | Ocelot *
1815
+ | Opposum
1816
+ | 0
1817
+ | *
1818
+ | Paca **
1819
+ | 0
1820
+ | Peccary† **
1821
+ | 0
1822
+ | Rabbit
1823
+ | Spiny Rat
1824
+ | Squirrel
1825
+ blank |
1826
+ text | 0
1827
+ | Tinamou
1828
+ | Birds (other)
1829
+ blank |
1830
+ text | 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
1831
+ | Visits/plot
1832
+ blank |
1833
+ |
1834
+ |
1835
+ |
1836
+ text | FIGURE 2.1. Total visits per plot by species for control plots (dark grey) and exclosure
1837
+ | plots (light grey). Zeros denote no individuals observed in exclosures. *** p < 0.001,
1838
+ | ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05,  p < 0.1; † groups, not individuals
1839
+ meta | 42 CHAPTER 2: CONSEQUENCES OF HUNTING FOR SEED DISPERSAL AND WOOD DENSITY
1840
+ blank |
1841
+ |
1842
+ |
1843
+ |
1844
+ text | DISPERSAL AGENTS & LIFEFORMS. A total of 12,769 seedlings of 322 species were
1845
+ | recorded in the 2006 LTEE seedling census. Of those, dispersal agents were known
1846
+ | for 247 species (76.7%) and 12575 stems (98.5%), and growth form was known for
1847
+ | 241 species (74.8%) and 12468 stems (97.6%). Consistent with our expectations,
1848
+ | there was no difference in the proportions of seedlings with different dispersal agents
1849
+ | (hunted: t = 1.161, P = 0.2651; unhunted t = 1.861, P = 0.089) (Fig. 2) or growth
1850
+ | forms (free-standing: t = 1.7131, P = 0.1096) (Fig. 3) in the LTEE.
1851
+ meta | 1.0
1852
+ blank |
1853
+ |
1854
+ |
1855
+ |
1856
+ text | Hunted Mixed Unhunted
1857
+ | 0.8
1858
+ | Proportion of seedlings
1859
+ blank |
1860
+ text | 0.6
1861
+ | 0.4
1862
+ | 0.2
1863
+ | 0.0
1864
+ blank |
1865
+ |
1866
+ |
1867
+ |
1868
+ text | Open Excl Open Excl Open Excl
1869
+ blank |
1870
+ text | Treatment by Disperser
1871
+ | FIGURE 2.2. Proportion of seedlings by dispersal mode class is not significantly
1872
+ | different between treatments in exclosure experiment.
1873
+ | 1.0
1874
+ blank |
1875
+ |
1876
+ |
1877
+ |
1878
+ text | Climbing Free Standing
1879
+ | Proportion of seedlings
1880
+ blank |
1881
+ text | 0.8
1882
+ | 0.6
1883
+ | 0.4
1884
+ | 0.2
1885
+ | 0.0
1886
+ blank |
1887
+ |
1888
+ |
1889
+ |
1890
+ text | Open Excl Open Excl
1891
+ blank |
1892
+ text | Treatment by Growth form
1893
+ blank |
1894
+ text | FIGURE 2.3. Proportion of seedlings by life form is not significantly different
1895
+ | between treatments in exclosure experiment.
1896
+ meta | 43
1897
+ blank |
1898
+ |
1899
+ |
1900
+ |
1901
+ text | SEED MASS. In the LTEE, seed dry mass was known for 166 (51.6 %) of species and
1902
+ | 10866 (85.1%) of stems. Exclosures removed all but the smallest seed predators. The
1903
+ | reduction in agouti activity was particularly dramatic (Fig. 4). Consistent with these
1904
+ | findings, as well as results from the forest comparison (Wright et al. 2007b), median
1905
+ | seed mass was 44% higher in exclosure plots, relative to controls (t = 2.315, P =
1906
+ | 0.02261).
1907
+ blank |
1908
+ text | 250
1909
+ | Diaspore Dry mass (mg)
1910
+ blank |
1911
+ text | 200
1912
+ | 150
1913
+ | 100
1914
+ blank |
1915
+ |
1916
+ |
1917
+ |
1918
+ text | Open Excl
1919
+ blank |
1920
+ |
1921
+ text | Treatment
1922
+ blank |
1923
+ text | FIGURE 2.4. (A) Median seed mass is significantly higher in exclosures (p <
1924
+ | 0.02261).
1925
+ blank |
1926
+ |
1927
+ text | LEAF TRAITS. LMA and laminar toughness were known for 11,173 stems (87.5%)
1928
+ | and 10,904 stems (85.4%) respectively in the LTEE, and for 33,839 stems (87.5 %)
1929
+ | and 29,962 stems (77.5 %) respectively in the hunting experiment. Exclosure and
1930
+ | hunting treatments were expected to reduce the number of terrestrial vertebrate
1931
+ | seedling predators in a way analogous to seed predators. A reduction in vertebrate
1932
+ | herbivores was expected to favor species with low LMA and small laminar toughness.
1933
+ | Contrary to expectation, neither the exclosure nor the hunting experiment showed
1934
+ | significant differences in median LMA or laminar toughness, nor was there a
1935
+ | significant difference between protected and hunted sites when the correspondence
1936
+ meta | 44 CHAPTER 2: CONSEQUENCES OF HUNTING FOR SEED DISPERSAL AND WOOD DENSITY
1937
+ blank |
1938
+ |
1939
+ |
1940
+ text | between seedling and adult communities was evaluated by ANCOVA (data not
1941
+ | shown).
1942
+ blank |
1943
+ |
1944
+ text | WOOD DENSITY. Adult wood specific gravity was known for 208 species (64.6% %)
1945
+ | and 11,620 stems (91.0 %) in the LTEE, and for 239 species (63.2 %) and 28,488
1946
+ | stems (73.3 %) in the hunting experiment. Stem tissue density is strongly positively
1947
+ | correlated with seedling survival in this forest (Alvarez-Clare & Kitajima 2007). If
1948
+ | greater stem tissue densities confer a protective effect against herbivores, we would
1949
+ | expect higher wood density species to be favored in open plots relative to exclosures,
1950
+ | and protected sites relative to hunted sites. Median wood densities were greatly
1951
+ | reduced in hunted site seedling communities, relative to both protected site seedling
1952
+ | communities (pooled variance t=3.86, P = 0.0011, one-tailed test) (Fig. 5a), and their
1953
+ | surrounding adult communities (F1,18 = 16.2, p < 0.001) (Fig. 5b). However, the
1954
+ | LTEE showed no differenced in median wood density (t = 0.024, P = 0.49) (Fig. 5a).
1955
+ | 0.65
1956
+ | Wood density of tree seedlings (g/cm3)
1957
+ | 0.65
1958
+ | Wood Specific Gravity (g/cm3)
1959
+ blank |
1960
+ |
1961
+ |
1962
+ |
1963
+ text | A B
1964
+ | Exclosure Hunting
1965
+ | 0.60
1966
+ | 0.60
1967
+ blank |
1968
+ |
1969
+ |
1970
+ |
1971
+ text | 0.55
1972
+ | 0.55
1973
+ blank |
1974
+ |
1975
+ |
1976
+ |
1977
+ text | 0.50
1978
+ blank |
1979
+ |
1980
+ text | 0.45
1981
+ | 0.50
1982
+ blank |
1983
+ |
1984
+ |
1985
+ |
1986
+ text | 0.45 0.50 0.55 0.60 0.65
1987
+ | Open Excl Protect Hunt Wood density of canopy trees (g/cm3)
1988
+ | Treatment
1989
+ blank |
1990
+ text | FIGURE 2.5. (A) Median wood density is not significantly different between treatments in the
1991
+ | exclosure experiment (p = 0.0238), but is significantly lower in hunted sites relative to
1992
+ | protected sites (p = 0.0011). White and grey boxes indicate analogous treatments (B) Seedling
1993
+ | median wood density is lower than adult median wood density for tree species in hunted sites
1994
+ | (dark circles) but not in protected sites (light triangles) (F1,18 = 16.2, p < 0.001). The dashed
1995
+ | line represents is the 1:1 line at which adult and seedling communities have the same median
1996
+ | values.
1997
+ blank |
1998
+ |
1999
+ text | We tested whether differences in primary dispersal may be responsible for the
2000
+ | discrepancy in wood density responses, as it was for differences in dispersal mode and
2001
+ | growth form. We used an ANOVA to compare mean wood densities across dispersal
2002
+ meta | 45
2003
+ blank |
2004
+ |
2005
+ |
2006
+ text | mode classes. Interestingly, species with unhunted dispersal agents had significantly
2007
+ | lower mean wood density than either species with hunted dispersal modes, or species
2008
+ | dispersed by agents in both categories (ANOVA, F2, 277, p = 0.0017) (Fig. 6a).
2009
+ | Specifically, wind dispersed species had significantly lower wood densities compared
2010
+ | to both mammal and large bird dispersed species (ANOVA, F6, 461, p = 0.0057) (Fig.
2011
+ | 6b).
2012
+ blank |
2013
+ |
2014
+ text | 0.7
2015
+ | 1.0
2016
+ | Mean Wood Specific Gravity (g/cm3)
2017
+ blank |
2018
+ |
2019
+ |
2020
+ |
2021
+ text | B
2022
+ blank |
2023
+ |
2024
+ |
2025
+ |
2026
+ text | Mean Wood Specific Gravity (g/cm3)
2027
+ | A a
2028
+ | a
2029
+ | b 0.6 ab
2030
+ | a
2031
+ | ab
2032
+ | a ab
2033
+ | 0.8
2034
+ blank |
2035
+ |
2036
+ |
2037
+ |
2038
+ text | ab b
2039
+ | 0.5
2040
+ | 0.6
2041
+ blank |
2042
+ |
2043
+ |
2044
+ |
2045
+ text | 0.4
2046
+ | 0.4
2047
+ blank |
2048
+ |
2049
+ |
2050
+ |
2051
+ text | 0.3
2052
+ | 0.2
2053
+ blank |
2054
+ |
2055
+ |
2056
+ |
2057
+ text | 0.2
2058
+ | 0.0
2059
+ blank |
2060
+ |
2061
+ |
2062
+ |
2063
+ text | 0.1
2064
+ blank |
2065
+ text | Hunted Mixed Unhunted 0.0
2066
+ | Bat Bird L.Bird Explo Mam Water Wind
2067
+ | Dispersal Mode Class
2068
+ | Dispersal Agent
2069
+ blank |
2070
+ |
2071
+ |
2072
+ |
2073
+ text | FIGURE 2.6. (A) Species with unhunted dispersal agents have lower WSGs. (B)
2074
+ | Wind dispersed species have significantly lower mean wood density than both
2075
+ | mammal and large bird dispersed species. Bars with same letter were not
2076
+ | significantly different in post hoc comparisons.
2077
+ blank |
2078
+ |
2079
+ title | Discussion
2080
+ blank |
2081
+ |
2082
+ title | Hunting, vertebrate abundance, and plant functional diversity
2083
+ blank |
2084
+ |
2085
+ text | This study demonstrates that hunting effects change in the seedling community of
2086
+ | tropical forests primarily by perturbing biotic seed dispersal and vertebrate seed
2087
+ | predation. Increases in lianas and reductions in species with hunted biotic dispersal
2088
+ | agents were observed in the hunting experiment, where primary dispersers were
2089
+ | reduced (Wright et al. 2007b), but not in the LTEE, where primary dispersers were not
2090
+ | manipulated (Figs. 2 and 3). Activity of seed predators was dramatically reduced in
2091
+ | the LTEE, and here we observed increases in median seed mass (Fig. 4). This result is
2092
+ meta | 46 CHAPTER 2: CONSEQUENCES OF HUNTING FOR SEED DISPERSAL AND WOOD DENSITY
2093
+ blank |
2094
+ |
2095
+ |
2096
+ text | consistent with larger-seed species experiencing an escape from vertebrate seed
2097
+ | predation (Dirzo et al., 2007), and lends strong support to the view that changes in
2098
+ | seed predator abundance are responsible for the increases in median seed mass
2099
+ | observed in hunted forests relative to protected forests (Wright et al. 2007b).
2100
+ | Leaf traits showed no differences in both the LTEE and the hunting
2101
+ | experiment. This suggests that the reduction of vertebrate herbivores by hunting does
2102
+ | not have a strong impact on changes in seedling community composition at early
2103
+ | stages of plant recruitment.
2104
+ | Wood density responses to herbivore reduction differed between the
2105
+ | LTEE and hunting experiment. The likeliest explanation for the discrepancy is that, as
2106
+ | with differences in dispersal mode and growth form responses between our
2107
+ | experiments, differences in wood density responses are dispersal-driven. To test this
2108
+ | post hoc hypothesis, we evaluated whether dispersal mode classes differ in their mean
2109
+ | wood densities. Consistent with our hypothesis that experimental differences in wood
2110
+ | density responses are due to differences in dispersal, wood density was significantly
2111
+ | lower for species with unhunted dispersal agents than for species having either hunted
2112
+ | dispersal agents, or a combination of the two (Fig. 6).
2113
+ | In contrast to the hunting experiment, the LTEE shows higher spiny rat activity
2114
+ | in the defaunated treatment. As spiny rats are known to be significant seedling
2115
+ | predators in the absence of other competitors (Asquith et al. 1997), it is also possible
2116
+ | that they may be compensating for the reduction in other seedling predators inside the
2117
+ | exclosures. However several lines of evidence contradict this putative explanation.
2118
+ | First, if spiny rats were compensating for other herbivores inside the exclosure
2119
+ | as in the study of Asquith et al. (1997), we would expect overall seedling densities to
2120
+ | be similar in open and exclosure plots, but instead, seedling densities in exclosures are
2121
+ | about 2-fold higher than in open plots (data not shown). The herbivory study on
2122
+ | islands which indicated that spiny rats alone can achieve seedling predation rates as
2123
+ | high as communities with relatively intact mammal fauna were conducted on islands
2124
+ | in which spiny rat densities are among the highest rodent densities ever documented
2125
+ | (Adler 1996), but our study does not replicate these high densities. In addition,
2126
+ meta | 47
2127
+ blank |
2128
+ |
2129
+ |
2130
+ text | herbivory by spiny rats cannot explain why wood density responses differ between
2131
+ | experiments, but leaf traits did not.
2132
+ blank |
2133
+ |
2134
+ text | Our evidence for a link between seed dispersal and community wood density is
2135
+ | an interesting result because Brodie and Gibbs (2009) recently proposed that
2136
+ | reductions in seed dispersal as a consequence of defaunation may result in shifts in
2137
+ | mean wood density at the community level. However, the mechanism that they
2138
+ | proposed assumed that seed mass was positively correlated with wood density across
2139
+ | species in tropical forests, which is true neither generally, nor for our site specifically
2140
+ | (Wright et al. 2010). Here we show that dispersal likely mediates changes in
2141
+ | community wood density distributions via an alternative mechanism, namely that low
2142
+ | and high wood density plant species are disportionately associated with dispersal
2143
+ | mode agents that are favored and disfavored respectively by hunting.
2144
+ blank |
2145
+ |
2146
+ text | Implications of defaunation for carbon sequestration in tropical forests.
2147
+ blank |
2148
+ |
2149
+ text | Our results suggest that there may be important links between hunting,
2150
+ | frugivore abundance, and the ability of future tropical forests to sequester carbon.
2151
+ | Disruption of seed dispersal by game animals has the potential to alter the ability of
2152
+ | forests to store carbon by (1) decreasing the abundance of trees relative to lianas
2153
+ | (Wright et al. 2007b), and (2) shifting wood density distributions in the community
2154
+ | toward lower wood density species (Fig 5a).
2155
+ | Higher liana relative abundance may reduce carbon storage at the ecosystem
2156
+ | level in two ways. Lianas compete with trees for light, displace tree leaf mass (Kira &
2157
+ | Ogawa 1971), and lower tree growth. One recent study from Amazonia estimated
2158
+ | that above ground competition from lianas was responsible for reductions in tree
2159
+ | growth that reduced carbon sequestration by the equivalent of 0.25 Mg C ha-1 yr-1 (van
2160
+ | der Heijden & Phillips, 2009). Growth of the lianas themselves amounted to 0.07 Mg
2161
+ | C ha-1 yr-1, which did not compensate for reductions in tree growth. The authors
2162
+ meta | 48 CHAPTER 2: CONSEQUENCES OF HUNTING FOR SEED DISPERSAL AND WOOD DENSITY
2163
+ blank |
2164
+ |
2165
+ |
2166
+ text | therefore estimated that competition from lianas reduced carbon sequestration at the
2167
+ | ecosystem level by net amount of 0.18 Mg C ha-1 yr-1 or 71%.
2168
+ | The consequences of lowering community mean wood density for carbon
2169
+ | storage depend on the relationship between wood density and tree volume in a
2170
+ | particular forest. Three Panamanian forests in the region, including BCI, exhibit a
2171
+ | weak, but negative relationship between plot mean wood density and plot biomass
2172
+ | (Stegen et al. 2009). This suggests that the reduction in community wood density in
2173
+ | our study site may actually lead to higher forest biomass, and partially compensate for
2174
+ | any reduction resulting from the relative reduction in free-standing stems. However,
2175
+ | forests exhibiting positive wood density-biomass relationships could experience a
2176
+ | decrease in carbon sequestration potential under the same scenario of reduced plot
2177
+ | wood density.
2178
+ | The phenomenon of over-hunting in tropical forests is widespread and severe.
2179
+ | If the changes in carbon storage potential represented by shifting seedling
2180
+ | communities in this study are as wide-spread as over-hunting itself, the potential
2181
+ | impact may be great. However, many questions must be answered before we can
2182
+ | understand the magnitude of the impact that hunting may have on the ability of
2183
+ | tropical forests to sequester carbon.
2184
+ | First, to our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating that tropical tree
2185
+ | wood densities are associated with dispersal mode classes, and in a way that would
2186
+ | respond to hunting. Studies investigating the generality of this association would
2187
+ | represent the first step in predicting whether the changes observed in our site would
2188
+ | apply pan-tropically. Secondly, here we report changes in the seedling community,
2189
+ | but better models of forest dynamics are needed to understand the extent to which
2190
+ | those changes will propagate to the adult community. Third, how lianas alter carbon
2191
+ | storage at the ecosystem level is poorly understood, and in particular we do not
2192
+ | understand how liana competition with trees varies as a function of liana abundance.
2193
+ | Finally, as noted by Stegen et al. (2009), there are many unanswered questions
2194
+ | pertaining to how changes in wood density distributions translate to changes in
2195
+ | biomass at the plot level.
2196
+ meta | 49
2197
+ blank |
2198
+ |
2199
+ |
2200
+ text | Hunting is not the only cause of defaunation. Frugivores, granivores, and
2201
+ | herbivores may also decrease in abundance as a result of habitat fragmentation and
2202
+ | loss (Asquith et al. 1999, Galetti et al. 2006, Terborgh et al. 2006, Cramer et al.
2203
+ | 2007). As with hunting, decreases in abundance with intensity of habitat loss
2204
+ | disproportionately affect larger-bodied animals. Therefore, even in the absence of
2205
+ | hunting, other sources of defaunation may be expected to have similar indirect effects
2206
+ | on plant community functional trait composition and ecosystem services in tropical
2207
+ | forests.
2208
+ blank |
2209
+ |
2210
+ title | Acknowledgements
2211
+ blank |
2212
+ |
2213
+ text | We extend our gratitude to the Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (ANAM) for
2214
+ | permitting us to conduct research within the Parque Nacional Soberanía. David
2215
+ | Brassfield, Didimo Ureña, and Joana Balbuena conducted the seedling censuses in the
2216
+ | hunting experiment. A competitive research grant from the Smithsonian Tropical
2217
+ | Research Institute funded seedling censuses in hunted and protected forests. The
2218
+ | Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the U.S. Department of Defence Legacy
2219
+ | Fund, and the U.S. Agency for International Development funded canopy tree
2220
+ | censuses at hunted and protected forests. NSF grant DEB 9527729 funded the LTEE.
2221
+ | NSF DEB-0808338, the Theresa Heinz Environmental Scholars program, and the
2222
+ | STRI short-term fellowship program provided support to E. Kurten.
2223
+ | 50 CHAPTER 2: CONSEQUENCES OF HUNTING FOR SEED DISPERSAL AND WOOD DENSITY
2224
+ meta | 51
2225
+ blank |
2226
+ |
2227
+ |
2228
+ |
2229
+ title | Chapter 3
2230
+ blank |
2231
+ title | Terrestrial mammalian herbivores
2232
+ | influence the distribution of defense
2233
+ | and nutrient traits in a Neotropical
2234
+ | forest
2235
+ | Erin. L. Kurten, Walter P. Carson
2236
+ blank |
2237
+ title | ABSTRACT
2238
+ blank |
2239
+ text | Mammalian herbivores are known to be important regulators of plant community
2240
+ | composition in tropical savannas and temperate systems. However, their impact on
2241
+ | tropical communities beyond their impact as seedling predators has remained largely
2242
+ | unexplored, perhaps because of the assumed importance of insect herbivory for
2243
+ | tropical plants beyond the seedling stage. In this study, we censused 35,069 saplings
2244
+ | in a long-term terrestrial mammal exclosure experiment in Central Panama to
2245
+ | determine whether mammalian herbivores had the ability to regulate the abundances
2246
+ | of species differing in wood density, specific leaf area (SLA), leaf toughness, and leaf
2247
+ | nitrogen. We found that community mean leaf toughness decreased in exclosures over
2248
+ | time, while community mean leaf nitrogen increased. These differences were
2249
+ | primarily due to an increased abundance of species possessing favored traits, rather
2250
+ | than species turnover as a consequence of herbivore exclusion. No community-level
2251
+ | differences were observed for mean wood density or specific leaf area. We also found
2252
+ meta | 52 CHAPTER 3: EFFECTS OF MAMMALIAN HERBIVORES ON SAPLING TRAITS
2253
+ blank |
2254
+ |
2255
+ |
2256
+ text | that intraspecific leaf toughness was lower in exclosures. Our results suggest that
2257
+ | mammalian herbivores are important for shaping plant functional trait distributions
2258
+ | well beyond the seedling stage, and that their effects on the sapling community are
2259
+ | distinct from their effects on the seedling community.
2260
+ blank |
2261
+ |
2262
+ title | INTRODUCTION
2263
+ blank |
2264
+ text | Mammalian herbivores are known to be important top-down regulators of plant
2265
+ | community composition in many ecosystems (Olff & Ritchie 1998, Parker et al.
2266
+ | 2006). In tropical forests, mammals are recognized as significant seedling predators
2267
+ | (Barone and Coley 1996). However their importance as herbivores in later stages of
2268
+ | plant recruitment has been less studied.
2269
+ | One study in peninsular Malaysia found that native pigs (Sus scrofa) uproot or
2270
+ | snap 500 saplings per female pig in their reproductive nest building (Ickes et al. 2001).
2271
+ | Experimental exclusion of pigs resulted in sapling density increasing by 32 percent,
2272
+ | relative to open controls in just two years (Ickes et al. 2001). Lizcano (2006) excluded
2273
+ | large mammalian herbivores, including mountain tapir (Tapirus pinchaque) and
2274
+ | brocket deer (Mazama spp.), in montane tropical forests in Columbia and discovered a
2275
+ | 2-fold increase in understory plant biomass in two years.
2276
+ | These two studies found higher species richness in exclosures, as may be
2277
+ | expected with higher stem densities, but no differences in species diversity indices.
2278
+ | The discrepancy between species richness and species diversity indices is explained by
2279
+ | the fact that species dominance often increases in mammal exclosures as well. The
2280
+ | positive and negative influences of increased species richness and dominance
2281
+ | respectively on the diversity index of an exclosure community can cancel each other
2282
+ | out, leading to the diversity index of an exclosure community being similar to that of a
2283
+ | control community.
2284
+ | In other ecosystems, herbivore exclosure not only results in changes in plant
2285
+ | density and diversity, but also in plant functional trait composition. This is because,
2286
+ | although mammals are generalist herbivores relative to many insects, they still exhibit
2287
+ | diet preferences. In one temperate forest, browsers selected species lower in defense
2288
+ meta | 53
2289
+ blank |
2290
+ |
2291
+ |
2292
+ text | compounds (e.g. leaf phenolics, condensed tannins, fiber, lignin) (Wardle et al. 2002),
2293
+ | and in a sub-humid grassland, grazers preferred taller-growing species (Diaz et al.
2294
+ | 2001).
2295
+ | However, at the community level, evolutionary history and present day
2296
+ | intensity of herbivory interact with diet preferences to produce mixed effects on
2297
+ | functional trait composition. In cases where species have evolved naïve of
2298
+ | mammalian herbivores, introduced browsers change species composition in favor of
2299
+ | species with lower average tissue quality (Wardle et al. 2002). The same occurs in
2300
+ | intensely grazed grasslands (Chaneton et al. 1988). In cases where plant communities
2301
+ | have evolved with mammalian herbivores, herbivory results in communities of species
2302
+ | with higher average tissue quality, both in the presence of native herbivores
2303
+ | (McNaughton 1985), as well as domestic herbivores that are not grazing at intensive
2304
+ | levels (Cingolani et al. 2002).
2305
+ | In contrast to other ecosystems, mammals in tropical forests are perceived to
2306
+ | be relatively unimportant herbivores. Mammals are responsible for about one quarter
2307
+ | of all herbivory in tropical forests. As generalists, they are perceived to have less of a
2308
+ | selective influence in shaping plant community composition and plant anti-herbivore
2309
+ | defense than specialist invertebrate herbivores (Coley and Barone 2003). However,
2310
+ | tropical forest mammals are important seedling predators. Therefore, the primary aim
2311
+ | of this study was to test whether mammalian herbivores could indeed have effects on
2312
+ | plant functional trait composition in tropical forests similar to those seen in temperate
2313
+ | forests by influencing the composition of the younger cohorts of the plant community.
2314
+ | We conducted this study in the Barro Colorado National Monument in central
2315
+ | Panama, where a terrestrial mammal exclosure experiment has been ongoing for the
2316
+ | past fifteen years (Royo & Carson 2005). We predicted that if mammalian herbivores
2317
+ | were important for determining sapling functional trait distributions, exclosure would
2318
+ | favor species that are faster growing (typically species with low wood density and
2319
+ | high specific leaf area, or SLA), less defended (low leaf toughness) and which have
2320
+ | higher nutrient leaves (higher leaf nitrogen). Our second goal was to evaluate the
2321
+ | hypothesis that differences in traits between treatments developed both as a
2322
+ meta | 54 CHAPTER 3: EFFECTS OF MAMMALIAN HERBIVORES ON SAPLING TRAITS
2323
+ blank |
2324
+ |
2325
+ |
2326
+ text | consequence of species turnover as well as increases in abundance of favored species
2327
+ | already common to both treatments.
2328
+ | A final goal of this study was to examine whether the traits of the species
2329
+ | themselves changed intraspecifically with mammal exclusion. In temperate systems,
2330
+ | changes in mammalian herbivory induce changes in photosynthetic rates (Oleksyn et
2331
+ | al. 1998, Nabeshima et al. 2001), photosynthetic efficiency (Retuerto et al. 2004), leaf
2332
+ | toughness (Shimazaki & Miyashita 2002). In tropical savanna, megaherbivores
2333
+ | influence the concentrations of condensed tannins in Acacia (Ward & Young 2002).
2334
+ | Though herbivory rates in tropical forests are much higher overall in comparison to
2335
+ | temperate forests (Coley & Barone 1996), suggesting that perhaps constitutive anti-
2336
+ | herbivore defenses should be ubiquitous. However, several tropical species alter their
2337
+ | defense in response to herbivory, and it has been suggested that the lack of more
2338
+ | tropical examples of plasticity in defense are due to lack of study rather than
2339
+ | biological differences between temperate and tropical plants (Karban & Baldwin
2340
+ | 1997). We therefore examined whether the defense trait we examined, leaf toughness,
2341
+ | may decrease intraspecifically in response to mammal exclusion.
2342
+ blank |
2343
+ |
2344
+ title | METHODS
2345
+ blank |
2346
+ |
2347
+ text | Study sites. The forest in Central Panama surrounding Lake Gatun is semi-deciduous
2348
+ | moist forest. We conducted our experiment on Barro Colorado Island (BCI) and on
2349
+ | the Gigante Peninsula, within the Barro Colorado National Monument (BCNM). The
2350
+ | BCI has relatively high abundances of vertebrate herbivores affected by mammal
2351
+ | exclosure, compared to other Neotropical forests, including deer (Mazama Americana
2352
+ | and Odocoileus virginianus), collared peccary (Tayassu tajacu), agoutis (Dasyprocta
2353
+ | punctata), pacas (Agouti paca), rabbits (Silvilagus brasiliensis). This is due to a
2354
+ | combination of factors, including a lack of resident large felines on the island,
2355
+ | protection from poaching, and other environmental factors. Tapir (Tapirus bairdii) are
2356
+ | also present on BCI, but are rare.
2357
+ meta | 55
2358
+ blank |
2359
+ |
2360
+ |
2361
+ text | Exclosure experimental design. Between late-1993 and mid-1994, eight pairs of
2362
+ | fenced, exclosure plots and open, control plots were established within the BCNM
2363
+ | (Royo & Carson 2005). Four pairs of plots are on (BCI) and the remaining four pairs
2364
+ | are on the mainland Gigante Penninsula. Fenced and unfenced plots are 30 m x 45 m
2365
+ | and are approximately 5 m apart. Exclosure fences are constructed of 12.7 x 12.7 cm
2366
+ | galvanized steel fencing 2.2 m tall and buried 0.25 m deep. A secondary 1.3 x 1.3 cm
2367
+ | mesh surrounds the lower 70 cm and also extends 0.25 m below ground. A 5-7 m
2368
+ | buffer zone at the plot edge, and bisecting the plot, allowed for access and the
2369
+ | avoidance of fence effects. Exclosures excluded the species mentioned above, but did
2370
+ | not exclude climbing mammals such as squirrels and spiny rats, nor did they exclude
2371
+ | arboreal mammals such as monkeys (Fig. 2.1). Monitoring data suggest that birds
2372
+ | were not altered by the exclosures, with the possible exception of tinamous (Fig. 2.1).
2373
+ | Though tortoises occur on our study site and are likely to be excluded by the fences,
2374
+ | they are small and rare, and generally not considered to have an effect on our study
2375
+ | results.
2376
+ blank |
2377
+ text | Plant censuses. In 1994 and 2003, all woody juveniles (“saplings”) taller than 40 cm
2378
+ | or larger than 3 mm diameter at 20 cm in height and not in the buffer zone were
2379
+ | identified, measured and marked.
2380
+ blank |
2381
+ |
2382
+ text | Plant traits. We sampled leaves from up to six individual saplings of each tree
2383
+ | species in each of the eight plots occurring on BCI. Specific leaf area was measured
2384
+ | on shade leaves of saplings as the fresh lamina area divided by the mass of a whole
2385
+ | leaf with petiole after oven drying to constant mass at 60ºC (Cornelissen et al. 2003).
2386
+ | Leaf samples were dried at 65ºC, ground using a ball grinder, and analyzed on an
2387
+ | NA1500 elemental analyzer (Carlo Erba Instruments, Italy) for total N and C. Leaf
2388
+ | toughness was measured as the force necessary to punch a 3mm diameter hole the leaf
2389
+ | lamina with a force gauge, avoiding leaf veins to the extent possible (Sagers &Coley
2390
+ | 1995). Wright and colleagues (2007b) determined dry seed mass and adult tree wood
2391
+ | specific gravity (2010) for both free standing species and lianas in central Panama.
2392
+ meta | 56 CHAPTER 3: EFFECTS OF MAMMALIAN HERBIVORES ON SAPLING TRAITS
2393
+ blank |
2394
+ |
2395
+ |
2396
+ text | Analyses. Trait correlations were conducted to assess whether traits in this study were
2397
+ | orthogonal to one another, and thus likely to respond independently to herbivory.
2398
+ | Community mean trait values were calculated in three ways. First, we calculated the
2399
+ | grand means of the traits at the species level, and used these species means to
2400
+ | determine the average trait value of the species occurring in each plot. We next
2401
+ | repeated this analysis, but weighted the species’ trait means by species’ abundances in
2402
+ | the plots. Finally, we calculated species trait means separately for exclosure and open
2403
+ | communities, and recalculated the abundance-weighted plot means using these
2404
+ | treatment-specific species trait values.
2405
+ | Linear mixed models were used to evaluate whether changes in community
2406
+ | mean trait values over time differed between treatments. Exclosure and time were
2407
+ | treated as fixed factors and the exclosure-control pair were treated as a random factor
2408
+ | nested within time. Our experiment tested for an exclosure-time interaction, and
2409
+ | significance values reported here refer to that interaction. All analyses were conducted
2410
+ | in R (R Development Core Team, 2008).
2411
+ blank |
2412
+ title | RESULTS
2413
+ blank |
2414
+ text | SPECIES TRAITS Functional traits were measured for 38.5-76.4 percent of species in
2415
+ | the experiment and 58.8-91.6 percent of stems in the experiment (Table 3.1). Traits
2416
+ | correlations were largely not significant, with the exceptions of SLA-leaf toughness
2417
+ | and SLA-leaf nitrogen (Table 3.2). However, the correlation coefficients for these two
2418
+ | relationships were still low (r2 = 0.325 and r2 = 0.231 respectively), and our results did
2419
+ | not show these trait pairs responding in a coordinated fashion (Fig. 3.1 & 3.2).
2420
+ meta | 57
2421
+ blank |
2422
+ |
2423
+ text | TABLE 3.1. The number of species and stems for which traits were measured.
2424
+ blank |
2425
+ text | No. Spp % Spp No. Stems % Stems
2426
+ | Total 369 - 35,069 -
2427
+ | Wood specific gravity 282 76.4 32,113 91.6
2428
+ | Specific Leaf Area 154 41.7 23,342 66.6
2429
+ | Leaf Toughness 152 41.2 23,322 66.5
2430
+ | Leaf Nitrogen 142 38.5 20,633 58.8
2431
+ blank |
2432
+ |
2433
+ text | TABLE 3.2. R2 values for pair-wise correlations between species mean trait
2434
+ | values evaluated in this study. The sign in parenthesis denotes whether the
2435
+ | relationship was positive or negative. All correlations are significant (p <
2436
+ | 0.001).
2437
+ blank |
2438
+ text | Wood specific gravity SLA Toughness
2439
+ | SLA 0.031 (-)
2440
+ | Toughness 0.004 (-) 0.325 (-)
2441
+ | Nitrogen 0.11 (-) 0.231 (+) 0.081 (-)
2442
+ blank |
2443
+ |
2444
+ |
2445
+ |
2446
+ text | EFFECTS OF SPECIES OCCURRENCE In 1993, approximately 87 percent of species
2447
+ | occurring in the experiment were present in both treatments. In 2003, 75 percent of
2448
+ | species occurring in the experiment were present in both treatments. Therefore, when
2449
+ | we averaged the trait means of the species occurring in each plot, we observed that the
2450
+ | changes in plot trait means over time did not differ between treatments for any of the
2451
+ | traits measured (Fig. 3.1).
2452
+ meta | 58 CHAPTER 3: EFFECTS OF MAMMALIAN HERBIVORES ON SAPLING TRAITS
2453
+ blank |
2454
+ |
2455
+ |
2456
+ |
2457
+ text | Wood Specific Gravity (g/cm3)
2458
+ | 0.60 22
2459
+ | 1994 2003 1994 2003
2460
+ blank |
2461
+ |
2462
+ |
2463
+ |
2464
+ text | Mean SLA (mg/mm2)
2465
+ | 0.59 21
2466
+ | 0.58 20
2467
+ | 0.57 19
2468
+ | 0.56 18
2469
+ | 0.55 17
2470
+ | 0.54 16
2471
+ | Open Excl Open Excl Open Excl Open Excl
2472
+ | A Treatment B Treatment
2473
+ | Mean Leaf Toughness (g/mm2)
2474
+ blank |
2475
+ |
2476
+ |
2477
+ |
2478
+ text | 34
2479
+ | 1994 2003 2.6 1994 2003
2480
+ | Mean % Leaf Nitrogen
2481
+ | 33
2482
+ | 2.4
2483
+ | 32
2484
+ | 2.2
2485
+ | 31
2486
+ | 2.0
2487
+ | 30
2488
+ | 1.8
2489
+ | 29
2490
+ | 1.6
2491
+ | 28
2492
+ | Open Excl Open Excl Open Excl Open Excl
2493
+ | C Treatment D Treatment
2494
+ blank |
2495
+ text | FIGURE 3.1. Changes in plot-level trait means, not weighted by species
2496
+ | abundance, did not differ significantly between treatments for (A) wood
2497
+ | density, (B) SLA, (C) leaf toughness or (D) leaf nitrogen.
2498
+ blank |
2499
+ text | EFFECTS OF SPECIES ABUNDANCE Stem densities increased by 46% in exclosures
2500
+ | from 1994 to 2003, but did not increase in open plots (data not shown). When we
2501
+ | averaged the trait means of the species occurring in each plot, and weighted traits by
2502
+ | species abundance, we did observe differences between treatments for some traits.
2503
+ | We predicted that exclosures would favor species with lower wood density, lower
2504
+ | SLA, lower leaf toughness, and higher leaf nitrogen. We did not see significant
2505
+ | differences between treatments in wood density (Fig. 3.2A) or SLA (Fig. 3.2B).
2506
+ | However, changes in leaf toughness (Fig. 3.2C) and leaf nitrogen (Fig. 3.D) over time
2507
+ | were significantly different between treatments. Consistent with our expectations,
2508
+ | exclosures had lower community mean leaf toughness and higher community mean
2509
+ meta | 59
2510
+ blank |
2511
+ |
2512
+ |
2513
+ text | leaf nitrogen in 2003, relative to open plots. However these differences did not exist
2514
+ | when the experiment was initiated in 1994 (Fig. 3.2 C & D).
2515
+ blank |
2516
+ |
2517
+ |
2518
+ text | Wood Specific Gravity (g/cm3)
2519
+ | 0.60 24
2520
+ | 1994 2003 1994 2003
2521
+ blank |
2522
+ |
2523
+ |
2524
+ |
2525
+ text | Mean SLA (mg/mm2)
2526
+ | 0.59 22
2527
+ | 0.58 20
2528
+ | 0.57 18
2529
+ | 0.56 16
2530
+ | 0.55 14
2531
+ | 0.54 12
2532
+ | Open Excl Open Excl Open Excl Open Excl
2533
+ | A Treatment B Treatment
2534
+ | Mean Leaf Toughness (g/mm3)
2535
+ blank |
2536
+ |
2537
+ |
2538
+ |
2539
+ text | 38 2.6
2540
+ | 1994 2003 Mean % Leaf Nitrogen 1994 2003
2541
+ | 36 2.4
2542
+ | * *
2543
+ | 34 2.2
2544
+ | 32 2.0
2545
+ | 30 1.8
2546
+ blank |
2547
+ text | 28 1.6
2548
+ blank |
2549
+ text | 26 1.4
2550
+ | Open Excl Open Excl Open Excl Open Excl
2551
+ | C Treatment D Treatment
2552
+ blank |
2553
+ |
2554
+ text | FIGURE 3.2. Changes in abundance-weighted, plot-level trait means did not
2555
+ | differ significantly between treatments for (A) wood density or (B) SLA, but
2556
+ | did differ significantly between treatments for (C) leaf toughness and (D) leaf
2557
+ | nitrogen. (* p = 0.06 , time x treatment interaction)
2558
+ blank |
2559
+ |
2560
+ text | INTRASPECIFIC DIFFERENCES IN LEAF TRAITS Because we sampled leaf traits in both
2561
+ | open and exclosure plots, we could examine how intraspecific differences in trait
2562
+ | means contributed to the differences between treatments at the community level. For
2563
+ | one trait, leaf toughness, we found that determining species trait means separately for
2564
+ | open and exclosure treatments, and using those treatment-specific species trait means
2565
+ | to calculate plot-level means, resulted in an enhanced difference between treatments at
2566
+ meta | 60 CHAPTER 3: EFFECTS OF MAMMALIAN HERBIVORES ON SAPLING TRAITS
2567
+ blank |
2568
+ |
2569
+ |
2570
+ text | the plot-level in the later time point (Fig. 3.3), relative to using grand trait means for
2571
+ | species (Fig. 3.2C).
2572
+ blank |
2573
+ text | 38
2574
+ blank |
2575
+ |
2576
+ |
2577
+ text | Mean Leaf Toughness (g/mm2)
2578
+ | 1994 2003
2579
+ | 36
2580
+ | 34 *
2581
+ | 32
2582
+ | 30
2583
+ | 28
2584
+ | 26
2585
+ | Open Excl Open Excl
2586
+ | Treatment
2587
+ blank |
2588
+ text | FIGURE 3.3. Intraspecific differences in species’ mean leaf toughness between
2589
+ | open and exclosure plots increase the difference in treatment-level mean leaf
2590
+ | toughness in 2003. (* p = 0.004, time x treatment interaction)
2591
+ blank |
2592
+ text | For species having at least two leaf samples from each treatment type, 61.8%
2593
+ | of species had lower leaf toughnesses in exclosures relative to controls (binomial test,
2594
+ | N = 76, p = 0.025). This bias was even stronger when the sample was limited to
2595
+ | species with treatment mean toughnesses based on at least eight leaf samples, with
2596
+ | 73.9% of species having lower leaf toughnesses in exclosures (binomial test, N = 23,
2597
+ | p = 0.017).
2598
+ | Because sample sizes among species and between treatments was unbalanced,
2599
+ | a MANOVA approach could not be taken to assess whether treatment means within a
2600
+ | species were significantly different. Therefore, using the latter subset of species
2601
+ | above, a two-way ANOVA was applied. The association of exclosure treatment with
2602
+ | lower mean leaf toughness with species was also significant using this approach
2603
+ | (Table 3.3).
2604
+ meta | 61
2605
+ blank |
2606
+ |
2607
+ |
2608
+ text | TABLE 3.3. Effect of species and exclosure on variation in leaf
2609
+ | toughness. N = 23 species, each of which had at least eight leaf
2610
+ | toughness samples from each of the two treatment types.
2611
+ blank |
2612
+ text | Effect df SS MS F p
2613
+ | Species 22 207.4 9.425 165.2 < 0.001
2614
+ | Exclosure 1 0.305 0.305 5.352 0.021
2615
+ | Species x Exclosure 22 1.292 0.059 1.029 0.425
2616
+ | Residuals 604 34.467 0.057
2617
+ blank |
2618
+ |
2619
+ |
2620
+ title | DISCUSSION
2621
+ blank |
2622
+ text | Regulation of plant functional trait composition by mammalian herbivores
2623
+ | In this study, we demonstrate that terrestrial mammals influence understory functional
2624
+ | trait distributions in tropical forests. They do so primarily by suppressing populations
2625
+ | of species with traits that are correlated with high nutrition and low defense.
2626
+ | Consistent with our predictions that reduced herbivory should favor species with low
2627
+ | defense and high nutrient content, community mean leaf toughness decreased over
2628
+ | time in exclosures over time (Fig. 3.2C), and community mean leaf nitrogen increased
2629
+ | in exclosures over time (Fig 3.2D), while open control plots did not show equivalent
2630
+ | changes.
2631
+ | Wood density is associated with seedling survival in the presence of herbivores
2632
+ | in this forest (Alvarez-Claire & Kitajima 2007, 2009). Browsers and grazers have also
2633
+ | been shown to select species with higher SLA in other systems (Wardle et al. 2002,
2634
+ | Cingolani et al. 2002). However, neither of these traits changed in response to
2635
+ | mammal exclosure. This could be because, at the sapling stage in tropical forests, the
2636
+ | low light conditions of the forest understory also favor low SLA, high wood density
2637
+ | species and perhaps this environmental factor constrains the community response to
2638
+ | herbivory with respect to those traits.
2639
+ | We did not find that changes in functional traits at the community-level were
2640
+ | the result of divergences in species presence-absence between exclosure and open
2641
+ | plots. The sapling community established prior to the imposition of the exclosure
2642
+ | treatments, and therefore two treatments started out with very similar communities.
2643
+ meta | 62 CHAPTER 3: EFFECTS OF MAMMALIAN HERBIVORES ON SAPLING TRAITS
2644
+ blank |
2645
+ |
2646
+ |
2647
+ text | Over longer time scales, competitively dominant species may outcompete less
2648
+ | competitive species in the exclosure treatment, resulting in lower species richness,
2649
+ | particularly of species which are better defended but slower growing. However, we
2650
+ | did not observe decreases in species richness in the time-frame of this experiment
2651
+ | (data not shown).
2652
+ | Seed and seedling predators are also excluded from the exclosure communities.
2653
+ | Therefore, it is reasonable to question whether the effects we observed are due
2654
+ | exclusively to herbivore exclusion. Two lines of evidence allow us to attribute our
2655
+ | results to herbivores. First, long-term studies of seedling growth in central Panama
2656
+ | suggest that all individuals in this size class established before the experimental
2657
+ | treatments were imposed (S.J. Wright, pers. comm.). Therefore, saplings in both
2658
+ | treatments should have been exposed to the same seed and seedling predation agents.
2659
+ | Consistent with the assumption that saplings established prior to exclusion of
2660
+ | seed and seedling predators, community mean seed mass does not differ between
2661
+ | treatments for the sapling community (data not shown). This is in contrast to the
2662
+ | seedlings in the exclosure communities, which did establish under conditions of seed
2663
+ | and seedling predator exclusion, and as a result have higher community mean seed
2664
+ | mass than seedlings in open control communities (Fig. 2.4).
2665
+ | These two lines of evidence suggest that exclusion of seed and seedling
2666
+ | predators are not responsible for the exclosure effects observed in the sapling
2667
+ | community, leaving only herbivory as a possible explanation.
2668
+ blank |
2669
+ |
2670
+ title | Intraspecific differences in leaf toughness
2671
+ text | The majority of species in the experiment showed lower mean leaf toughness inside
2672
+ | the exclosure, relative to open plots. When these intraspecific differences in species
2673
+ | leaf toughness were accounted for (Fig. 3.3), treatment differences in plot level leaf
2674
+ | toughness in 2003 were 66 percent larger than when a grand mean for the species leaf
2675
+ | toughness was applied (Fig. 3.2C). This result suggests that in the case of leaf
2676
+ | toughness, the trait values measured for juvenile tropical plants may vary with the
2677
+ | degree of herbivory experienced.
2678
+ meta | 63
2679
+ blank |
2680
+ |
2681
+ |
2682
+ text | There are several possible explanations for the intraspecific divergence in leaf
2683
+ | toughness. First, it is possible that, within species, genotype or environment produces
2684
+ | variation in leaf toughness, and individuals with lower leaf toughness survive at a
2685
+ | lower rate in open plots than in exclosures . Support for this mechanism can be found
2686
+ | in studies of insect herbivory on plant genotypes which differ in their expression of
2687
+ | qualitative defense traits (Kessler & Baldwin, 2001, Silfer et al. 2009).
2688
+ | An alternative explanation is that plants are relaxing their investment in
2689
+ | mechanical defenses when they no longer experience mammalian herbivory.
2690
+ | Hundreds of plant species are known to increase investment in defense when exposed
2691
+ | to herbivory, and subsequently attenuate that defense when herbivory levels are lower
2692
+ | (Karban & Baldwin 1997). However few studies have documented reduced
2693
+ | investment in defense upon reduction of mammalian herbivory. In Acacia
2694
+ | drepanolobium decreases in spine length or spinescence are detectable after 22 months
2695
+ | (Young & Okello 1998), decreases in condensed tannin concentrations are detectable
2696
+ | after 24-36 months (Ward & Young 2002) and reduced investment in indirect defenses
2697
+ | occur within several years (Huntzinger et al. 2004).
2698
+ | Regardless of the mechanism, the fact that mammalian herbivores may play a
2699
+ | role in altering leaf toughness intraspecifically in tropical plants is unexpected. Insects
2700
+ | are thought to be responsible for three quarters of herbivory in tropical forests, and
2701
+ | also the source of the strongest selection pressures plants receive to develop anti-
2702
+ | herbivore defenses in this system (Barone & Coley 2002). The experimental plots in
2703
+ | which we measured leaf toughness did not manipulate insects, and it is plausible that
2704
+ | plants in both treatments could have experience high rates of invertebrate herbivory,
2705
+ | and therefore shown no attenuation in defense traits. Yet, it appears that insect
2706
+ | herbivores could not compensate for mammalian herbivores in maintaining high
2707
+ | intraspecific leaf toughness when mammals were excluded.
2708
+ blank |
2709
+ |
2710
+ title | Implications for tropical defaunation
2711
+ text | In many temperate forests, populations of native or introduced large
2712
+ | mammalian herbivores are not regulated in a top-down fashion by predators. As a
2713
+ meta | 64 CHAPTER 3: EFFECTS OF MAMMALIAN HERBIVORES ON SAPLING TRAITS
2714
+ blank |
2715
+ |
2716
+ |
2717
+ text | result, these communities currently experience intense levels of herbivory, low rates of
2718
+ | plant recruitment and often decreases in species richness and diversity (Wardle et al.
2719
+ | 2002, Rooney 2001). However, tropical forests are undergoing the opposite
2720
+ | perturbation. Throughout the tropics, mammalian herbivores are being unsustainably
2721
+ | hunted (Peres & Palacios 2007, Corlett 2007, Fa & Brown 2009). Preferred game
2722
+ | species of animals are often large-bodied herbivores, such as elephants, tapir, pigs,
2723
+ | peccaries and deer.
2724
+ | Understanding how and why such perturbations in herbivore abundance alter
2725
+ | plant species diversity and functional composition will help conservation biologists
2726
+ | identify potential interventions to conserve plant species threatened indirectly by
2727
+ | defaunation. However, because most studies examining changes in functional
2728
+ | diversity have been conducted in temperate forests, where the perturbation
2729
+ | experienced by plant communities is increased rates of herbivory, little empirical data
2730
+ | exists with which to evaluate how tropical forests may respond to decreased rates of
2731
+ | herbivory by native herbivores as a consequence of defaunation.
2732
+ | The biomass of terrestrial mammalian herbivores in tropical forests is quite
2733
+ | low, relative to other ecosystems (Bodmer 1989, Leigh et al. 1982). In addition,
2734
+ | insects are thought to account for approximately 75 percent of overall herbivory in
2735
+ | tropical forests. Taken together, these data might suggest that observed reductions in
2736
+ | terrestrial mammalian herbivore populations in tropical forests may not have large
2737
+ | impacts on sapling community composition. However, this study demonstrates
2738
+ | reduced herbivory as a consequence of tropical defaunation is likely to cause an
2739
+ | increase in dominance of sapling species with higher leaf nitrogen and lower leaf
2740
+ | toughness. Leaves with higher leaf nitrogen and lower concentrations of defense
2741
+ | compounds typically have higher decomposition rates. Therefore, it is conceivable
2742
+ | that if changes in the sapling community propagate to alter canopy composition,
2743
+ | defaunation may alter nutrient cycling in tropical forests.
2744
+ meta | 65
2745
+ blank |
2746
+ |
2747
+ |
2748
+ title | ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
2749
+ blank |
2750
+ text | D. Ackerly, L. Curran, R. Dirzo and P. Vitousek provided constructive criticism which
2751
+ | improved this work. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute granted permission
2752
+ | to conduct this work, and provided logistical support. D. Turner provided assistance
2753
+ | with leaf nitrogen analysis. J. Wright provided seed mass and wood density data.
2754
+ | Many thanks go to L. Jimenez, C. Sarmiento, S. Rebellon, A. Calderón, R.
2755
+ | Bethancourt for help in the field and lab. A. Hernandez and O. Valdes provided
2756
+ | indispensible help with species identification. NSF DEB-0808338, the Theresa Heinz
2757
+ | Environmental Scholars program, and the STRI short-term fellowship program
2758
+ | provided support to E. Kurten.
2759
+ | 66 CHAPTER 3: EFFECTS OF MAMMALIAN HERBIVORES ON SAPLING TRAITS
2760
+ meta | 67
2761
+ blank |
2762
+ |
2763
+ |
2764
+ |
2765
+ title | Chapter 4
2766
+ blank |
2767
+ text | Hunting does not alter seed
2768
+ | predation rates as a function of seed
2769
+ | size in a Neotropical forest
2770
+ | Erin L. Kurten
2771
+ blank |
2772
+ title | ABSTRACT
2773
+ blank |
2774
+ text | This study tested the hypothesis that vertebrate seed predation rates vary with seed
2775
+ | size and with hunting intensity in tropical forests, corresponding to direct impacts of
2776
+ | hunting on vertebrate species of differing size classes. Seed fate of seeds from species
2777
+ | with mean fresh seed masses ranging from 0.002 to 62.4 g was compared between a
2778
+ | protected and nearby hunted forest in central Panama. Transect survey data verified
2779
+ | that higher hunting intensity corresponded with lower abundances of key mammalian
2780
+ | seed predators. Seed arrays of a subset of species were monitored with camera traps
2781
+ | to verify the identities of animals responsible for seed removal. In this system, there
2782
+ | was only weak support for a relationship between seed predation rates and seed size,
2783
+ | and no evidence that this relationship changed at high hunting intensity. There was
2784
+ | also no evidence that seed predator body size varied with seed size, as agoutis
2785
+ | (Dasyprocta punctata) were responsible for most of the verified removal for five plant
2786
+ | species examined, ranging from 1.95 to 62.4 g in fresh seed mass.
2787
+ meta | 68 CHAPTER 4: SEED PREDATION RATES AS A FUNCTION OF SEED SIZE AND DEFAUNATION
2788
+ blank |
2789
+ |
2790
+ |
2791
+ title | INTRODUCTION
2792
+ blank |
2793
+ text | Overharvesting of bushmeat is a pervasive threat to biodiversity across the tropics (Fa
2794
+ | & Peres 2001, Peres & Palacios 2007, Corlett 2007). This defaunation not only
2795
+ | directly lowers vertebrate abundance in hunted forests, but initiates trophic cascades
2796
+ | which perturb the plant, insect, and pathogen communities as well. Preferred game
2797
+ | species of animals are usually large-bodied vertebrates, such as ateline monkeys, tapir,
2798
+ | peccary and deer, as well as large birds, and in some cases reptiles, in the context of
2799
+ | Neotropical forests. Understanding how and why such cascading perturbations alter
2800
+ | species diversity and functional composition in the plant community is important for
2801
+ | understanding the role mammals play in maintaining the diversity of tropical forests,
2802
+ | as well as identify potential interventions to conserve plant species threatened by the
2803
+ | negative indirect effects of defaunation.
2804
+ | Several studies have documented reduced seed dispersal as a consequence of
2805
+ | hunting in tropical forests, particularly for larger-seed species (e.g. Wright et al. 2000,
2806
+ | Guariguata et al. 2000, Guariguata et al. 2002, Galetti et al. 2006, Wang et al. 2007,
2807
+ | Brodie et al. 2009, Fadini et al. 2009, Holbrook & Loiselle 2009). These studies
2808
+ | suggest that reduced dispersal should result in reduced recruitment of large-seeded
2809
+ | species, in particular those that rely on large-bodied mammals vulnerable to hunting
2810
+ | for their seed dispersal (Peres & van Roosmalen 2002, Nuñez-Iturri et al. 2008,
2811
+ | Terborgh et al. 2008).
2812
+ | However, in most cases, reduced dispersal due to hunting has not been
2813
+ | explicitly linked to subsequent reductions in seedling recruitment. While one study
2814
+ | modeled the potential reduction in seedling recruitment, based on estimates of reduced
2815
+ | dispersal to and differential survival in different microhabitats (Brodie et al. 2009),
2816
+ | only one set of studies of which I am aware measured seed dispersal, seed predation,
2817
+ | and seedling recruitment for the same species in both protected and hunted sites
2818
+ | (Wright et al. 2000, Wright & Duber 2001). Wright and colleagues (2000, 2001)
2819
+ | focused on two large-seeded palm species, members of genera which are widespread
2820
+ | in the Neotropics. They found seed dispersal to be indeed reduced, and seedling
2821
+ | densities near parent trees to be higher, as one would predict to be associated with
2822
+ meta | 69
2823
+ blank |
2824
+ |
2825
+ |
2826
+ text | hunting. However, contrary to what has been hypothesized in the seed dispersal
2827
+ | literature, recruitment of Attalea and Astrocaryum palms was actually higher in the
2828
+ | hunted sites (Wright et al. 2000, 20001). The reason for this unexpected increase in
2829
+ | recruitment was that hunting reduced the intensity of vertebrate seed predation, and
2830
+ | this reduction was not fully compensated for by invertebrates. (Cramer et al. 2003)
2831
+ | suggested a similar reduction in seed predation was responsible for higher recruitment
2832
+ | of the African species Balanites wilsoniana in defaunated sites, despite lower dispersal
2833
+ | by elephants, however seed predation rates were never measured (Babweteera et al.
2834
+ | 2007).
2835
+ | It is clear from this example that a better understanding of the consequences of
2836
+ | hunting for seed predation is necessary for providing context to the studies
2837
+ | documenting reduced seed dispersal. In studies which have measured seed predation
2838
+ | in sites with differing intensities of hunting, rates of vertebrate seed predation have
2839
+ | often been lower in hunted sites (Terborgh & Wright 1994, Wright et al. 2000, Wright
2840
+ | & Duber 2001, Guariguata 2000, Beckman & Muller-Landau 2007, but see Roldán &
2841
+ | Simonetti 2001).
2842
+ | Even less clear is how perturbations in seed predation rates as a consequence
2843
+ | of hunting may vary with seed size. Because larger-seeded species are expected to
2844
+ | disproportionately experience reduced seed dispersal, understanding how seed
2845
+ | predation changes with hunting across a range of seed sizes is important for
2846
+ | understanding whether or not the potentially negative demographic consequences of
2847
+ | reduced seed dispersal of larger-seeded species is intensified, maintained, or
2848
+ | compensated for by alterations in seed predation across species (Stoner et al. 2007).
2849
+ | However, most studies which have measured seed predation rates under various
2850
+ | hunting regimes have focused on one or two plant species (e.g. Terborgh & Wright
2851
+ | 1994, Wright et al. 2000, Roldán & Simonetti 2001, Wright & Duber 2001, Galetti et
2852
+ | al. 2006, Beckman & Muller-Landau 2007, Donatti et al. 2009). Due to the variation
2853
+ | in location, mammal community composition, and degree of defaunation in the sites
2854
+ | studied, these data cannot be directly compared to assess how seed predation rates
2855
+ | change with defaunation intensity as a function of seed size. Guariguata and
2856
+ meta | 70 CHAPTER 4: SEED PREDATION RATES AS A FUNCTION OF SEED SIZE AND DEFAUNATION
2857
+ blank |
2858
+ |
2859
+ |
2860
+ text | colleagues (2000) measured seed predation rates of seven species, but focused
2861
+ | primarily on small-seeded timber species. .
2862
+ | In 2007, Dirzo and colleagues published a model of how vertebrate seed
2863
+ | predation could be expected to vary with seed size and intensity of vertebrate
2864
+ | defaunation in tropical forests (Fig. 4.1). At low levels of hunting, vulnerable, large-
2865
+ | bodied animals drastically decrease in abundance or become locally extirpated. In
2866
+ | response to this competitive release, as well as a likely reduction in predation by
2867
+ | felines, medium-sized seed predators initially become more abundant, until they
2868
+ | become the primary game species at moderate levels of hunting. At the highest
2869
+ | intensities of defaunation, even medium-sized seed predators have become rare. Small
2870
+ | rodents increase steadily with increasing hunting intensity, as they experience a
2871
+ | reduction in competition and predation.
2872
+ | In this model, predation intensity of larger-seeded species mirrors the changes
2873
+ | in abundance of medium-bodied seed predators (e.g. 4-20 kg body mass in
2874
+ | Neotropical communities), while predation of smaller-seeded species increases as
2875
+ | small bodied seed predator (< 1 kg) biomass increases. As a result, the relative
2876
+ | proportion of larger and smaller seeds comprising the seedling bank is expected to
2877
+ | shift as defaunation intensity increases. This model was important for clarifying how
2878
+ | seed predation is likely to vary by seed-size, and how this relationship is dependent
2879
+ | upon the defaunation context.
2880
+ meta | 71
2881
+ blank |
2882
+ |
2883
+ text | Large vertebrates
2884
+ | A
2885
+ blank |
2886
+ |
2887
+ text | Seed predator Biomass
2888
+ | Mid-sized vertbrates
2889
+ | Small rodents
2890
+ blank |
2891
+ text | BCI
2892
+ | PNS
2893
+ | C No Def.
2894
+ blank |
2895
+ |
2896
+ |
2897
+ |
2898
+ text | Seed predation Intensity
2899
+ | High Def.
2900
+ blank |
2901
+ |
2902
+ |
2903
+ |
2904
+ text | B Large Seeds
2905
+ | Seed predation Intensity
2906
+ blank |
2907
+ |
2908
+ text | Small Seeds
2909
+ blank |
2910
+ |
2911
+ |
2912
+ |
2913
+ text | Small La rge
2914
+ | Seed Size
2915
+ blank |
2916
+ |
2917
+ |
2918
+ text | None Moderate High
2919
+ | Defaunation Intensity
2920
+ | FIGURE 4.1. Model of how seed predation should vary with seed
2921
+ | mass as a function of defaunation intensity in a Neotropical forest
2922
+ | (modified from Dirzo et al. 2007). (A) Changes in large, medium and
2923
+ | small vertebrate seed predator abundance with increasing defaunation
2924
+ | intensity. The approximate positions of BCI and PNS along the
2925
+ | defaunation gradient shown here are based on mammal transect
2926
+ | surveys. (B) Seed predation intensity of large and small seeded species
2927
+ | on a biomass basis is correlated with the abundance of medium- and
2928
+ | small-bodied seed predators respectively. (C) As defaunation
2929
+ | intensifies, the relationship between seed predation rates and seed size
2930
+ | goes from positive to negative.
2931
+ blank |
2932
+ text | With this study, I aimed to test several assumptions and hypotheses inherent in
2933
+ | this model. The first assumption I tested was that larger-seeded species experience
2934
+ | higher seed predation intensity than smaller seeded species at all but the highest levels
2935
+ | of defaunation intensity. The second assumption of the model I tested was that larger-
2936
+ | seeded species tend to be consumed by large- and medium-bodied vertebrates.
2937
+ | Likewise, smaller-seeded species tend to be consumed by smaller-bodied vertebrates.
2938
+ | A third hypothesis implicit in the model is that at high levels of defaunation intensity,
2939
+ | where the number of large- and medium-bodied vertebrates is highly reduced, larger-
2940
+ | seeded species experience reduced seed predation, relative to less defaunated sites. A
2941
+ meta | 72 CHAPTER 4: SEED PREDATION RATES AS A FUNCTION OF SEED SIZE AND DEFAUNATION
2942
+ blank |
2943
+ |
2944
+ |
2945
+ text | fourth prediction of the model is that smaller-seeded species experience increased seed
2946
+ | predation as defaunation intensity increases, as populations of small bodied vertebrates
2947
+ | increase in response to competitive release and reduced predation. There is a great
2948
+ | interest in determining the extent to which other vertebrates or natural enemies can
2949
+ | compensate for the loss of a primary seed predator.
2950
+ | To test these hypotheses, seeds of 13 species spanning the range of 0.002 to
2951
+ | 64.2 g mean fresh seed mass were monitored in arrays in both a protected forest and a
2952
+ | nearby hunted forest. Fate of seeds was monitored for four weeks. To examine
2953
+ | whether larger- and smaller-seeded species indeed had larger- and smaller-bodied
2954
+ | seed predators respectively, the seed arrays on BCI were monitored with camera traps
2955
+ | for five species ranging from 1.95 to 64.2 g fresh mean seed mass for one week, and
2956
+ | the the agents of seed removal were recorded.
2957
+ | To assess whether other vertebrates might compensate for the loss of a
2958
+ | principle seed predator, I monitored two large-seeded palm species with camera traps
2959
+ | in both sites. This allowed me to determine if and how the species of vertebrate seed
2960
+ | disperser differed between the protected and hunted sites, in particular if smaller
2961
+ | vertebrates compensated for the removal of larger vertebrates. I also recorded the
2962
+ | source of mortality for all species when seeds were killed by invertebrates and
2963
+ | pathogens, to examine whether those agents could also compensate for the loss of
2964
+ | larger bodied seed predators.
2965
+ blank |
2966
+ |
2967
+ title | METHODS
2968
+ blank |
2969
+ |
2970
+ text | Study sites. The forest in Central Panama surrounding Lake Gatun is semi-deciduous
2971
+ | moist forest. I examined the effects of defaunation by hunting by comparing protected
2972
+ | and hunted forests in this area (Fig. 4.2). Barro Colorado Island (BCI) was chosen as
2973
+ | the protected forest site, and could be regarded as a moderately defaunated site. Due
2974
+ | to its size (15 km2), the island no longer supports white-lipped peccary, and has
2975
+ | visiting, rather than resident, jaguar (Panthera onca) and puma (Puma concolor).
2976
+ | Other large mammals, such as tapir (Tapirus bairdii) and spider monkeys (Ateles
2977
+ meta | 73
2978
+ blank |
2979
+ |
2980
+ |
2981
+ text | geoffroyi), were locally extirpated and historically reintroduced (Enders 1939,
2982
+ | Terwilliger 1978, Milton & Hopkins 2005). However today, activity of poachers is
2983
+ | virtually nonexistent on BCI due to the monitoring by forest guards and Panamanian
2984
+ | police. The last confirmed incident of poaching on BCI occurred in 1989 (Wright et
2985
+ | al. 2007). Consistent with an absence of poachers, researchers on BCI do not
2986
+ | encounter evidence of hunting, and wildlife is common to see.
2987
+ | Adjacent to the Barro Colorado National Monument (BCNM) is the Parque
2988
+ | Nacional Soberanía (PNS). PNS is a protected area, however the region of the park in
2989
+ | which the study was conducted is not actively patrolled. This is due to both fewer
2990
+ | forest guards at the park, a lack of vehicles to access the study area, which is more
2991
+ | than 20 km from the park headquarters. Consistent with a lack of protection, various
2992
+ | evidence of hunting activity was encountered while conducting this study, including
2993
+ | spent shells, campfires, litter, gun shots, hunting dogs, experimental vandalism, and in
2994
+ | one case, encountering a hunting party.
2995
+ blank |
2996
+ |
2997
+ |
2998
+ text | BCNM
2999
+ | PNS
3000
+ | trails
3001
+ blank |
3002
+ |
3003
+ |
3004
+ |
3005
+ text | N
3006
+ | 0 5 km
3007
+ blank |
3008
+ |
3009
+ text | FIGURE 4.2. Map of Lake Gatun study area in central Panama. Seed
3010
+ | predation experiments were conducted in areas demarcated by trails.
3011
+ meta | 74 CHAPTER 4: SEED PREDATION RATES AS A FUNCTION OF SEED SIZE AND DEFAUNATION
3012
+ blank |
3013
+ |
3014
+ |
3015
+ text | Mammal census. Diurnal mammal transect surveys were conducted from mid-August
3016
+ | to mid-December in 2008. Once per week in each site, an observer surveyed a 5 km
3017
+ | transect between the hours of 6:30 AM and 11:30 AM, walking at a speed of 1 km/hr.
3018
+ | Surveys were not conducted during rain. Observers recorded the species and age
3019
+ | (adult or juvenile) of all mammals sighted, and measured initial detection distance
3020
+ | with a Nikon ProStaff 550 range finder (Nikon Inc., Melville, NY). Because of the
3021
+ | time and difficulty involved in counting individuals in troupes of primates, these
3022
+ | species were recorded in units of groups. Because most species had few observations
3023
+ | in PNS, and the parameters that density estimators require could not be accurately
3024
+ | estimated for that site, I report animal abundances (individuals/km or groups/km),
3025
+ | rather than densities.
3026
+ meta | 75
3027
+ blank |
3028
+ |
3029
+ |
3030
+ text | TABLE 4.1. Mean fresh seed masses of study species. BCI and PNS
3031
+ | columns denotes species used in each site. Most species are free standing
3032
+ | growth forms. C. turczanninowii and T. richardii are lianas.
3033
+ | Species Family Seed mass (g) BCI PNS
3034
+ | Apeiba tibourbou Tiliaceae 0.0057 X X
3035
+ | Protium tenuifolium Burseraceae 0.18 X
3036
+ | Cupania latifolia Sapindaceae 0.19 X
3037
+ | Chamaedorea tepejilote Arecaceae 0.49 X X
3038
+ | Connorus turczanninowii Conneraceae 0.49 X
3039
+ | Thevetia ahouai Apocynaceae 1.11 X
3040
+ | Oneocarpus mapora Arecaceae 1.95 X
3041
+ | Virola surinamensis Myristicaeae 2.43 X
3042
+ | Calophyllum longifolium Clusiaceae 5.48 X
3043
+ | Astrocaryum standleyanum Arecaceae 9.84 X X
3044
+ | Gustavia superb Lecythidaceae 16.0 X
3045
+ | Attalea butyracea Arecaceae 16.2 X X
3046
+ | Tontelea richardii Celastraceae 64.2 X
3047
+ blank |
3048
+ |
3049
+ text | Seed preparation. Thirteen woody plant species ranging from 0.002 to 64.2 g mean
3050
+ | fresh seed mass were selected for this study (Table 4.1), representing 76 % of the
3051
+ | range in fresh seed mass for this area on a log scale. While these species are common
3052
+ | to both BCI and PNS, heavy insect and/or pathogen infestation of some species in
3053
+ | PNS prevented collection of viable seeds in this site. Because of protected area rules,
3054
+ | seeds could not be moved between sites. Therefore, eleven species were examined on
3055
+ | BCI and six species in PNS, with four species common to both sites, spanning almost
3056
+ | the entire range of seed size in the study.
3057
+ | Seeds appearing rotten, insect-damaged, or otherwise unviable were not
3058
+ | included in the experiment. To remove confounding effects of differing seed pulps, all
3059
+ | seeds were cleaned of pulp or mucilage. After pulp removal, mass, width and length
3060
+ | were measured for seeds of all species but Apeiba tibourbou. Apeiba seed mass for
3061
+ | BCI was previously recorded (Wright et al. 2007). A thread was attached to all but
3062
+ | the smallest seeds (A. tibourbou and P. tenuifolium), so that I could recover the seeds
3063
+ | and record their fate.
3064
+ meta | 76 CHAPTER 4: SEED PREDATION RATES AS A FUNCTION OF SEED SIZE AND DEFAUNATION
3065
+ blank |
3066
+ |
3067
+ |
3068
+ text | Seed predation experiment. A randomized block design was used to compare seed
3069
+ | predation rates in the two sites. Within each forest, six blocks were delineated.
3070
+ | Within each block, each species was placed on the forest floor in an array of 6-8 seeds
3071
+ | in a different random location. For G. superba on BCI and C. tepelijote in PNS, only
3072
+ | four arrays were used, as few seeds unattacked by insects were available. Because A.
3073
+ | tibourbou and P. tenuifolium, were small and not marked with thread, these species
3074
+ | were set out in shallow mesh trays with 6-8 seeds per tray. Data reported here is from
3075
+ | a total of 732 seeds.
3076
+ | Experiments were conducted between mid-July and mid-September 2009.
3077
+ | Seeds were monitored for four weeks, during which seed fate and agent of mortality
3078
+ | were recorded. Classes of seed fate were: unmoved (intact), cached, moved but not
3079
+ | buried (intact), predated by vertebrates, predated by insects, and killed by pathogens.
3080
+ | Seeds which were removed and only the thread recovered were presumed predated. .
3081
+ blank |
3082
+ |
3083
+ text | Assessment of seed predator identity. The arrays of 5 species with masses ~2 g or
3084
+ | larger were monitored with Reconyx RC-55 infrared cameras on BCI for the first
3085
+ | week. Only half of the Virola arrays were monitored due to camera limitation. In
3086
+ | addition, the arrays of two of the larger-seeded species, A. standleyanum and A.
3087
+ | butyracea were monitored in PNS. More species were not monitored in PNS due to
3088
+ | concerns over equipment loss. As a conservative assignment of seed predator identity,
3089
+ | the species of seed predator was only recorded when the removal of a marked seed
3090
+ | was clearly visible in the image. Instances of probable seed removal, but in which
3091
+ | camera angle, position of the animal, or clarity of the image prevented a clear
3092
+ | determination of the event, were not assigned to a particular animal species.
3093
+ blank |
3094
+ |
3095
+ text | Analyses. The relationships between mean seed mass and mean seed mortality in the
3096
+ | two sites was assessed via an ANCOVA, with site as the fixed factor and log-
3097
+ | transformed mean seed mass as the covariate. Differences in seed caching rates
3098
+ | between sites were evaluated with a t-test for both palm species. All analyses were
3099
+ | conducted in R (R Development Core Team, 2008).
3100
+ meta | 77
3101
+ blank |
3102
+ |
3103
+ |
3104
+ title | RESULTS
3105
+ blank |
3106
+ text | Mammal census. Diurnal mammal transect surveys, conducted from mid-August to
3107
+ | mid-December in 2008, verified differences in degree of defaunation between BCI and
3108
+ | PNS, which approximately correspond to moderate and intense degrees of defaunation
3109
+ | respectively (Fig. 4.3.)
3110
+ blank |
3111
+ |
3112
+ title | Medium-bodied
3113
+ | Dasyprocta punctata
3114
+ | Cebus capuchinus
3115
+ | Alouatta palliata
3116
+ | Species
3117
+ blank |
3118
+ |
3119
+ |
3120
+ |
3121
+ text | Large-bodied
3122
+ | Ateles geoffroyi ‡
3123
+ | Mazama americana
3124
+ | Odocoileus virginianus *
3125
+ | Pecari tajacu
3126
+ | BCI
3127
+ | Tapirus bairdii ‡ PNS
3128
+ blank |
3129
+ text | 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
3130
+ | Individuals per km
3131
+ blank |
3132
+ |
3133
+ text | FIGURE 4.3. Animal abundances in BCI and PNS as assessed by trail
3134
+ | census in 2008. Above are species of medium body size known to
3135
+ | maintain or increase their population density with moderate hunting,
3136
+ | but decrease with intense hunting (Peres and Palacios 2007). Below
3137
+ | are large-bodied animals that have been historically present in the sites
3138
+ | and which are known to be most vulnerable to hunting. At both BCI
3139
+ | and PNS, most large-bodied mamals are rare or locally extinct.
3140
+ | However, medium-sized mammals are highly abundant in BCI,
3141
+ | whereas they are also quite rare in PNS, indicating the two sites are
3142
+ | moderately and intensely hunted, respectively. † locally extirpated in
3143
+ | PNS; ‡ locally extirpated in BCI, reintroduced, and currently rare;
3144
+ | *present and rare at both sites, not observed in this census.
3145
+ blank |
3146
+ |
3147
+ text | Seed predation intensity. Relationships between seed mortality and seed size were
3148
+ | evaluated by ANCOVA, with site being a fixed factor. Seed mortality over all
3149
+ | species, when all sources of mortality were pooled, was not correlated with seed mass
3150
+ | (F1,13 = 1.47, p = 0.25), and this did not differ between sites (F1,13 = 0.69, p = 0.42)
3151
+ meta | 78 CHAPTER 4: SEED PREDATION RATES AS A FUNCTION OF SEED SIZE AND DEFAUNATION
3152
+ blank |
3153
+ |
3154
+ |
3155
+ text | (Fig. 4.4a). For the subset of species with verified vertebrate seed predation , there
3156
+ | was not significant (F1,12 = 1.45, p = 0.25) (Fig 4.4b) Apeiba, which appeared to have
3157
+ | no vertebrate seed predators at either site. was excluded from the model. ). Also,
3158
+ | contrary to the model (Fig. 4.1), the effect of site was not signficant (F1,13 = 0.11, p =
3159
+ | 0.74) (Fig. 4.4b). Mortality caused by invertebrates and fungal pathogens was
3160
+ | negatively correlated with seed mass across all species (F1,13 = 21.1, p > 0.001).
3161
+ | Again, this relationship did not differ by site (F1,13 = 0.19, p = 0.67).
3162
+ | Mortality by
3163
+ | All Sources Vertebrates Invertebrates & pathogens
3164
+ | Proportion seeds killed
3165
+ blank |
3166
+ |
3167
+ |
3168
+ |
3169
+ text | 1.0
3170
+ | A B C
3171
+ | 0.8
3172
+ blank |
3173
+ text | 0.6
3174
+ blank |
3175
+ text | 0.4
3176
+ blank |
3177
+ text | 0.2
3178
+ blank |
3179
+ text | 0.0
3180
+ | -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4
3181
+ | BCI Log(Seed mass)
3182
+ | PNS
3183
+ | FIGURE 4.4. Seed predation rates as a function of seed size on BCI and in PNS.
3184
+ | (A) Across all species there was a negative, but non-significant, relationship
3185
+ | between seed mass and seed mortality. (B) Seed mass and vertebrate seed
3186
+ | predation were not correlated when analysis was restricted to species with verified
3187
+ | vertebrate seed predators. (Points for Apeiba slightly offset for visualization.) (C)
3188
+ | Seed mass and seed mortality by invertebrates and fungal pathogens were
3189
+ | negatively correlated (includes Apeiba). No differences were observed between
3190
+ | sites.
3191
+ blank |
3192
+ |
3193
+ text | Scatter-hoarding rodents do not just predate seeds. For two of the large seeded
3194
+ | palms, seed caching by scatter-hoarding rodents is critical for escaping seed predation
3195
+ | by bruchid beetles. I predicted that caching of Attelea and Astrocaryum would be
3196
+ | lower in the hunted site, as the primary seed caching agent, the agouti (Dasyprocta
3197
+ | punctata), was less abundant at that site (Fig. 4.3), unless compensated for by
3198
+ | squirrels. Contrary to this prediction, the number of seeds cached did not differ
3199
+ | between sites for either species (Attalea: t = -0.129, p = 0.55, one-tailed test;
3200
+ | Astrocaryum: t = -0.412, p = 0.66, one-tailed test). (Fig. 4.5). This equivalence
3201
+ meta | 79
3202
+ blank |
3203
+ |
3204
+ |
3205
+ text | between sites appears not to be due compensation by squirrels, in as far as every seed
3206
+ | caching event for which the agent could be verified by camera trap was committed by
3207
+ | an agouti (data not shown).
3208
+ blank |
3209
+ |
3210
+ text | 2.5
3211
+ blank |
3212
+ |
3213
+ text | 2.0
3214
+ blank |
3215
+ text | Seeds Cached
3216
+ | 1.5
3217
+ blank |
3218
+ |
3219
+ text | 1.0
3220
+ blank |
3221
+ |
3222
+ text | 0.5
3223
+ blank |
3224
+ |
3225
+ text | 0.0
3226
+ | BCI PNS BCI PNS
3227
+ | Attalea Astrocaryum
3228
+ | Sites by Species
3229
+ | FIGURE 4.5. Number of seeds cached per array of eight seeds for two
3230
+ | large seeded palms did not differ between BCI and PNS.
3231
+ blank |
3232
+ text | Seed predator identity. Camera trap monitoring of seeds in the first week on BCI
3233
+ | revealed D. punctata, to be the primary agent of seed removal for all species (Fig.
3234
+ | 4.6). Seed removal by spiny rats (Proechimys steerei) and squirrels (Sciurus
3235
+ | granatensis) accounted for little of the seed predation and varied by plant species (Fig.
3236
+ | 4.6). Data from BCI do not appear support the hypothesis that seed predator size is
3237
+ | correlated with seed size.
3238
+ meta | 80 CHAPTER 4: SEED PREDATION RATES AS A FUNCTION OF SEED SIZE AND DEFAUNATION
3239
+ blank |
3240
+ |
3241
+ |
3242
+ text | 50 50
3243
+ | Not taken
3244
+ | Unknown
3245
+ | Squirrel
3246
+ | Spiny rat 40
3247
+ | 40 Agouti
3248
+ blank |
3249
+ |
3250
+ |
3251
+ |
3252
+ text | Number of seeds
3253
+ | Number of seeds
3254
+ blank |
3255
+ |
3256
+ |
3257
+ |
3258
+ text | 30
3259
+ | 30
3260
+ blank |
3261
+ |
3262
+ text | 20
3263
+ | 20
3264
+ blank |
3265
+ |
3266
+ text | 10
3267
+ | 10
3268
+ blank |
3269
+ text | 0
3270
+ | 0
3271
+ | BCI PNS BCI PNS
3272
+ | Oneocarpus Virola Astrocaryum Attalea Tontelea
3273
+ | Attalea Astrocaryum
3274
+ | Species ranked by mass Sites by Species
3275
+ blank |
3276
+ |
3277
+ text | FIGURE 4.6. Identity of species removing seeds during first week of
3278
+ | experiment. (Left) On BCI five species ranging in mass from 1.95 g
3279
+ | (Oneocarpus) to 64.2 g (Tontelea) were primarily removed by
3280
+ | agoutis, and showed no relationship between seed size and seed
3281
+ | predator body size. (Right) Seed removal of large-seeded palms at
3282
+ | BCI and PNS. Removal of Attelea was higher in PNS, but
3283
+ | Astrocaryum removal did not differ between sites. Seed predation
3284
+ | by small mammals was higher in PNS for Attalea, and higher in BCI
3285
+ | for Astrocaryum.
3286
+ blank |
3287
+ text | A comparison of palm seed dispersal in BCI and PNS revealed that the seed
3288
+ | removal of Attelea in PNS was more than 4-fold higher in the hunted site, contrary to
3289
+ | expectation. Verified Attelea predation by D. punctata was similar in both sites, while
3290
+ | seed predation by small mammals, primarily squirrels, was much higher in the hunted
3291
+ | site. Astrocaryum removal in the first week was 100% in both sites, with confirmed
3292
+ | removals by D. punctata being slightly higher in the hunted site, and removals by P.
3293
+ | steerei being slightly higher in the protected site (Fig. 4.6).
3294
+ meta | 81
3295
+ blank |
3296
+ |
3297
+ |
3298
+ title | DISCUSSION
3299
+ blank |
3300
+ text | Hunting is a pervasive threat to biodiversity in tropical forests. Decreases in plant
3301
+ | diversity as high as 66% have been documented as an indirect consequence of hunting.
3302
+ | Yet the mechanisms by which that diversity is lost are poorly understood, as is their
3303
+ | context dependence. This study aimed to test some basic assumptions about plant-
3304
+ | seed predator interactions in the context of seed size, as well as hypotheses as to how
3305
+ | those interactions may change as a consequence of defaunation. This information is
3306
+ | useful for understanding how vertebrate seed predators shape community level
3307
+ | distributions of seed size, and to predict how and why plant community composition
3308
+ | may change with increasing hunting intensity.
3309
+ | This discussion focuses primarily on plant-seed predator interactions.
3310
+ | However, as several of the animals relevant to this discussion are also recognized to be
3311
+ | secondary seed dispersers, much of the discussion which follows is equally relevant to
3312
+ | seed dispersal.
3313
+ blank |
3314
+ |
3315
+ text | Seed size and vertebrate seed predation intensity. Overall, this study found little
3316
+ | support for the model assumption that vertebrate seed predation rates are correlated
3317
+ | with seed mass, either positively in moderately defaunated sites, or negatively in
3318
+ | highly defaunated sites. Other seed traits, as well as natural history, may be more
3319
+ | important for determining seed predation rates than seed mass per se. For instance, of
3320
+ | the three of largest seed-species in this study, the Astrocaryum and Attelea exhibited
3321
+ | the highest rates of seed removal, whereas Gustavia exhibited one of the lowest.
3322
+ | Relative to Gustavia, the palm seeds have an endosperm that is high in fat content, and
3323
+ | therefore energy rich for their weight. The rodents are well adapted to the primary
3324
+ | defense of these palms against seed predators: a woody endocarp. While the thin seed
3325
+ | coat of Gustavia would appear to make it more vulnerable to vertebrate seed
3326
+ | predators, it may exhibit chemical defenses that make them less desirable to
3327
+ | rodents(e.g. Forget 1992). Indeed, it was not uncommon on BCI and PNS to see bits
3328
+ | of Gustavia pulp with a pile of intact seeds of the forest floor, the result of agoutis
3329
+ | consuming the fruit flesh and discarding the seeds (E. Kurten, pers. obs.). However,
3330
+ meta | 82 CHAPTER 4: SEED PREDATION RATES AS A FUNCTION OF SEED SIZE AND DEFAUNATION
3331
+ blank |
3332
+ |
3333
+ |
3334
+ text | there are circumstances in which Gustavia seed predation has been higher (Sork 1987,
3335
+ | Forget 1992).
3336
+ | The natural history of the two palm species also make them preferable for
3337
+ | hoarding. A. standleyanum and A. butyracea germinate after 8 and 12 months
3338
+ | respectively. Therefore, they are likely to persist intact as hoarded seeds until the
3339
+ | period of low fruit availability from November through February (Foster 1982). In
3340
+ | contrast, Gustavia germinates within 1-2 weeks of fruit fall (E. Kurten, pers. obs.).
3341
+ | While the seeds remain attached to the establishing seedling for many more months,
3342
+ | seeds and cotyledons are vulnerable to consumption by other seedling predators, and
3343
+ | seed energy stores become reduced over time. By November, Gustavia seedlings are
3344
+ | no longer of interest to agoutis on BCI (Forget 1992). Therefore, in contrast to the
3345
+ | palms, Gustavia is not a species useful for provisioning rodents through the period of
3346
+ | low fruit availability.
3347
+ | Comparison of the large-seeded palm species and Gustavia illustrates how
3348
+ | variability in seed consumption by vertebrates among seeds of similar size is likely to
3349
+ | be introduced by a variety of differences in nutritive value, defense traits, and
3350
+ | germination strategy. Variation in these traits will likely cause deviations in
3351
+ | consumption rates from what may be predicted by seed size and optimal foraging
3352
+ | theory alone.
3353
+ blank |
3354
+ |
3355
+ text | Seed predator identity. Camera-based observations for five species preyed upon by
3356
+ | vertebrates showed little support for the model assumptions that the seed predator
3357
+ | body size is correlated with the size of the seed. While enclosure and exclosure
3358
+ | experiments have demonstrated that small rodents prefer small seeded species to
3359
+ | taxonomically related larger seeds, and can exert a large, and disproportionate seed
3360
+ | predation pressure on smaller seeded species (Dirzo et al. 2007, Mendoza & Dirzo
3361
+ | 2007), this study suggests that when seeds are available to the entire community of
3362
+ | potential seed predators, the importance of smaller mammals, even for relatively
3363
+ | smaller seeds, is diminished. In particular, agoutis appear to be a highly important
3364
+ | seed predator and secondary seed disperser in this system.
3365
+ meta | 83
3366
+ blank |
3367
+ |
3368
+ |
3369
+ text | There may be other circumstances, however, in which the relationship between
3370
+ | seed size and seed predator biomass may be stronger. It is notable that, despite the
3371
+ | fact that peccaries are well-documented seed predators of palms such as Astrocaryum
3372
+ | and Attelea in many parts of the Neotropics (Beck 2006), no observations of predation
3373
+ | of these two species by peccaries were observed in this study. This is likely due to the
3374
+ | fact that larger-bodied seed predators such as peccaries and brocket deer tend to
3375
+ | consume fruits and seeds under fruiting trees, where fruit and seed densities are
3376
+ | highest and foraging most efficient. In contrast, the seed arrays in this experiment best
3377
+ | mimicked the situation in which a few seeds have already been dispersed away from
3378
+ | the parent tree. Rodents such as agoutis and squirrels, will also forage under fruiting
3379
+ | trees. However, as scatter-hoarding species, they are behaviorally more likely than
3380
+ | larger seed predators to search for, find and consume small, isolated patches of seeds
3381
+ | on the forest floor.
3382
+ | In addition to dispersal context, the composition of the mammal community is
3383
+ | likely influential in determining the strength of any relationship between seed size and
3384
+ | seed disperser size. For example, in forests such as Cocha Cashu, Peru, agoutis are
3385
+ | much less abundant (Terborgh & Wright 1994), and therefore less likely to
3386
+ | demonstrate a high importance as seed predators and seed dispersers across a range of
3387
+ | species, as seen on BCI. BCI is also lacking an abundance of terrestrial vertebrates at
3388
+ | the two extremes of seed predator body size. White-lipped peccaries (T. pecari) have
3389
+ | been locally extinct for more than half a century on BCI, and tapirs are rare. At the
3390
+ | other extreme, in parts of Mexico and Belize, mice such as Peromyscus and
3391
+ | Heteromys can be significant seed predators of some species (Coates-Estrada &
3392
+ | Estrada 1988, Klinger and Rejmanek 2009), whereas rodents smaller than spiny rats
3393
+ | (P. steerii) are rare on BCI.
3394
+ blank |
3395
+ |
3396
+ text | Seed predation and defaunation. Despite large differences in abundances of key seed
3397
+ | predators such as collared peccaries and agoutis, decreased vertebrate seed predation
3398
+ | rates of larger-seeded species were not generally observed between BCI and PNS, nor
3399
+ | did smaller-seeded species generally show increases in seed predation rates in the
3400
+ meta | 84 CHAPTER 4: SEED PREDATION RATES AS A FUNCTION OF SEED SIZE AND DEFAUNATION
3401
+ blank |
3402
+ |
3403
+ |
3404
+ text | hunted site relative to the protected site. Rates of seed caching of large-seeded palms,
3405
+ | critical for seedling recruitment in those species, also did not differ between sites.
3406
+ | These data corroborate the work of Wright and colleagues (2001) with respect to
3407
+ | large-seeded palms, and extend it to a broader spectrum of species.
3408
+ | Rather than seed predation, and secondary seed dispersal, varying linearly with
3409
+ | agouti abundance in this system, it may be useful to consider the possibility of seed
3410
+ | predator thresholds. In particular, lower populations of agoutis as a consequence of
3411
+ | hunting may serve to decrease competition for fruit and seed resources among agoutis
3412
+ | locally, but within certain limits, may not interfere with seed dispersal and seed
3413
+ | predation rates from the perspective of the plant. However, if hunting reduces agouti
3414
+ | populations below a particular threshold in abundance, there are no longer enough
3415
+ | animals to adequately maintain levels of seed predation and dispersal.
3416
+ | Conceptualizing the disruption of plant-seed predator interactions in terms of
3417
+ | thresholds is similar to the model proposed by Galetti and colleagues (2006), in which
3418
+ | Astrocaryum seed predation rates are a sigmoidal or logistic, rather than linear,
3419
+ | function of agouti abundance. Data from two defaunation gradients suggest this may
3420
+ | be the case (Fig. 4.7). In Panama, sites with agouti densities 60%-80% lower than
3421
+ | BCI still had high rodent seed predation rates equivalent to or higher than those
3422
+ | observed on BCI, but where agouti densities were further reduced, seed predation rates
3423
+ | dropped dramatically (Wright et al. 2001). Likewise in Brazil, sites with agouti
3424
+ | abundances 80% lower than the maximum density observed still maintained agouti
3425
+ | seed predation rates approximately equal to those observed in the sites with the highest
3426
+ | agouti abundance (Donatti et al. 2009).
3427
+ meta | 85
3428
+ blank |
3429
+ |
3430
+ |
3431
+ text | 100 Above threshold
3432
+ blank |
3433
+ |
3434
+ |
3435
+ |
3436
+ text | Rodent seed predation (%)
3437
+ | Below threshold
3438
+ blank |
3439
+ text | 80
3440
+ blank |
3441
+ |
3442
+ text | 60
3443
+ blank |
3444
+ |
3445
+ text | 40
3446
+ blank |
3447
+ |
3448
+ text | 20
3449
+ blank |
3450
+ |
3451
+ text | 0
3452
+ | A B C D E
3453
+ | Literature Study
3454
+ | FIGURE 4.7. Published studies examining seed predation of
3455
+ | large-seeded palms by rodents, primarily agoutis, across
3456
+ | defaunation gradients consistently find that high rates of seed
3457
+ | predation are maintained despite reductions in agouti densities up
3458
+ | to 80% of maximum observed densities. Below this threshold,
3459
+ | seed predation rates drop 48-96%. (A) Galetti et al. (2006),
3460
+ | Astrocaryum aculeatissimum, under parent trees; (B) Donatti et
3461
+ | al. (2009), A. aculeatissimum, controlled experiment; (C) Galetti
3462
+ | et al.(2006), ), A. aculeatissimum, controlled experiment; (D)
3463
+ | Wright et al. (2000), Astrocaryum standleyanum, “dispersed”
3464
+ | seeds; (E) Wright et al. (2000), Attalea butyracea, “dispersed”
3465
+ | seeds.
3466
+ | At a community level, evidence has been found both for large, mammal- or
3467
+ | primate-dispersed species decreasing in abundance in association with hunting
3468
+ | (Nunez-Iturri et al. 2008, Terborgh et al. 2008), and community mean seed mass
3469
+ | increasing in association with hunting (Wright et al. 2007, Ch. 2). Differences in the
3470
+ | mammalian community context, in the relative levels of defaunation being compared,
3471
+ | and differences in the traits and natural histories of plant species driving the
3472
+ | community level patterns may all be contributing to such discrepancies in community
3473
+ | level response to hunting.
3474
+ meta | 86 CHAPTER 4: SEED PREDATION RATES AS A FUNCTION OF SEED SIZE AND DEFAUNATION
3475
+ blank |
3476
+ |
3477
+ |
3478
+ title | CONCLUSIONS
3479
+ blank |
3480
+ |
3481
+ text | Overall, this empirical test of a theoretical model (Dirzo et al. 2007) of how seed
3482
+ | predation rates should vary as a function of seed size and defaunation intensity found
3483
+ | little general support for the model. In this system, there was only weak support for a
3484
+ | relationship between seed mass and vertebrate seed predation rate, and no evidence
3485
+ | that seeds were increasingly predated upon by larger-bodied seed predators as seed
3486
+ | size increased by species. Furthermore, despite large differences in the abundances of
3487
+ | key seed predators between a hunted and protected site, no differences were seen in
3488
+ | vertebrate seed predation, or seed caching by agoutis. This work highlights the
3489
+ | importance of considering both plant natural history and mammal community context
3490
+ | when trying to predict the indirect effects of hunting on plant recruitment. It also is
3491
+ | consistent with accumulating evidence that the functional roles that seed predators and
3492
+ | seed dispersers play in tropical forests may not be linearly correlated with their
3493
+ | abundance in a system, but rather, may be threshold-dependent.
3494
+ blank |
3495
+ title | ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
3496
+ blank |
3497
+ text | The author is grateful to the Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (ANAM) of Panama
3498
+ | for permission to conduct work in Parque Nacional Soberanía, and to the Smithsonian
3499
+ | Tropical Research Institute (STRI) for permission to conduct this work on BCI, and
3500
+ | for providing logistical support. I would like to thank J. Wright for seed mass data
3501
+ | and advice about sites. N. Beckman also provided useful advice in the planning stages
3502
+ | of this experiment. The Fondo Peregrino–Panamá, in particular A. Muela, provided
3503
+ | logistical support at the site in the Parque Nacional Soberanía. Many thanks go to C.
3504
+ | Sherman, R. Bethancourt and R. Acosta for their hard work in the field and the lab,
3505
+ | and to S. Rebellon for help with pilot work. D. Brassfield and O. Calderón provided
3506
+ | help with species identification. I would like to thank O. Arosemena at STRI for her
3507
+ | help with permitting, and all the staff on BCI whose help made conducting this work
3508
+ | easier. R. Dirzo and C. Donatti provided comments which improved the manuscript.
3509
+ | This project was made possible with funding from NSF DEB-0808338.
3510
+ meta | 87
3511
+ blank |
3512
+ |
3513
+ |
3514
+ |
3515
+ title | Bibliography
3516
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3517
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3539
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3561
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3565
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