Fruit biomass availability along a forest cover gradient

• Published in: Biotropica Vol. 49; no. 1; pp. 45 - 55
• Main Authors: Pessoa, Michaele S., Rocha-Santos, Larissa, Talora, Daniela C., Faria, Deborah, Mariano-Neto, Eduardo, Hambuckers, Alain, Cazetta, Eliana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley 01.01.2017; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Atlantic forest; Biomass; Brazil; Endangered & extinct species; fleshy fruit biomass; Forests; functional groups; plant–animal interaction; Tropical Biology; ASW, Brazil
• ISSN: 0006-3606; 1744-7429
• DOI: 10.1111/btp.12359

Habitat loss is the main driver of the current high rate of species extinction, particularly in tropical forests. Understanding the factors associated with biodiversity loss, such as the extinction of species interactions and ecological functions, is an urgent priority. Here, our aim was to evaluate how landscape-scale forest cover influences fruit biomass comparing different tree functional groups. We sampled 20 forest fragments located within landscapes with forest cover ranging from 2 to 93 percent in the Atlantic forest of southern Bahia, Brazil. In each fragment, we established five plots of 25 × 4 m and carried out phenological observations on fleshy fruit throughout 1 year on all trees ≥5 cm dbh. We estimated fruit availability by direct counting of all fruits and derived fruit biomass from this count. We used spatial mixed linear models to evaluate the effects of forest cover on species richness, abundance, and fruit biomass. Our results indicated that forest cover was the main explanatory variable and negatively influenced the total richness and abundance of zoochoric and shade-tolerant but not shade-intolerant species. A linear model best explained variations in richness and abundance of total and shade-tolerant species. We also found that forest cover was positively correlated with the fruit biomass produced by all species and by the shade-tolerant assemblages, with linear models best explaining both relationships. The loss of shade-tolerant species and the lower fruit production in fragments with lower landscape-scale forest cover may have implications for the maintenance of frugivore, seed dispersal service, and plant recruitment.