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Strong among population variation in frugivory strength by functional diverse frugivores: a ‘reciprocal translocation’ experiment

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Abstract

Fruit–frugivore interactions are critical for the dynamics and evolution of many plant communities. The strength of the interactions between a given plant species and different frugivore guilds (e.g., seed dispersers, seed predators) often vary in space due to changes in plant extrinsic factors (e.g., frugivore abundances) and plant traits (e.g., fruit size and reward). By reciprocally translocating Pyrus bourgaeana ripe fruits representative of five Mediterranean localities during 2 consecutive years, we experimentally quantified guild-specific variations among populations in frugivory strength, while accounted for plant-intrinsic and- extrinsic factors. Though overall fruit removal did not differ among localities, there were strong guild-specific differences in fruit removal strength. Fruit removal by pulp feeders, seed dispersers, and fruit predators varied among populations up to 8.5-, 5.6-, and 4.0-folds, respectively. These strong variations seemed mediated by changes in frugivore relative abundances rather than on availability of alternative fruits. As expected, all fruit traits considered (e.g., fruit size, pulp amount) markedly varied among tree populations. However, no frugivore guild showed preference for fruits from any locality, suggesting that fruit traits did not contribute much to differences in frugivory strength among populations. Since the functional diverse frugivore guilds played contrasting roles in P. bourgaeana dynamics (e.g., seed dispersal vs. seed predation), our study highlights the importance of accounting for functional diversity in frugivore guilds when estimating spatial variations in the strenght of seed dispersal. This investigation also illustrates a neglected but widely applicable experimental approach to identify the relative importance of extrinsic factors and fruit traits in mediating fruit–frugivore interactions.

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Acknowledgements

We are indebted to many volunteers for their essential field assistance. Comments provided by an anonymous reviewer improved an earlier draft. This research was financed by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (CGL2007-63488/BOS) and FEDER funds through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors-COMPETE and by National Funds through FCT-Foundation for Science and Technology under the UID/BIA/50027/2013 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006821. JMF was funded by Portuguese FCT (Grant IF/00728/2013). MZ was founded by the statutory fund of the Władysław Szafer Institute of Botany of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Applied Ecology “Prof. Baeta Neves”/InBio, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Pedro J. Garrote, Magdalena Żywiec & José M. Fedriani

  2. Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-C.S.I.C.), c/Américo Vespucio s/n, 41092, Seville, Spain

    Gemma Calvo, Miguel Delibes & José M. Fedriani

  3. W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Lubicz 46, 31 512, Kraków, Poland

    Magdalena Żywiec

  4. Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, 116 St. and 85 Ave., Edmonton, AB, T6G 2R3, Canada

    Alberto Suárez-Esteban

  5. Yukon College, 500 College Drive, Whitehorse, YT, Y1A 5D4, Canada

    Alberto Suárez-Esteban

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  1. Pedro J. Garrote
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  2. Gemma Calvo
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  3. Magdalena Żywiec
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  4. Miguel Delibes
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  5. Alberto Suárez-Esteban
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  6. José M. Fedriani
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Contributions

JMF conceived and designed the experiments. GC, MZ, JMF, MD, AS performed the experiments. PG analyzed the data. PG, JMF wrote the first draft; all authors contribute to the final draft.

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Correspondence to José M. Fedriani.

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Communicated by Amy Austin.

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Garrote, P.J., Calvo, G., Żywiec, M. et al. Strong among population variation in frugivory strength by functional diverse frugivores: a ‘reciprocal translocation’ experiment. Oecologia 187, 143–154 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-018-4102-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-018-4102-x

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