Effects of frugivore species pool and seed size on the diversity and functional composition of frugivores visiting fruiting trees
Issued Date
2025-10-08
Resource Type
ISSN
09628452
eISSN
14712954
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-105017940221
Pubmed ID
41057003
Journal Title
Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
Volume
292
Issue
2056
Rights Holder(s)
SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences Vol.292 No.2056 (2025)
Suggested Citation
Naniwadekar R., Gopal A., Mandal R., Jayanth A., Sriprasertsil V., Ghuman S., Page N., Chaplod S., Lad H., Gadkari A., Chandran V., Desai N.A., Kadam R., Strange B.C., Chimchome V., Gale G.A., Joshi J. Effects of frugivore species pool and seed size on the diversity and functional composition of frugivores visiting fruiting trees. Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences Vol.292 No.2056 (2025). doi:10.1098/rspb.2025.1775 Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/112552
Title
Effects of frugivore species pool and seed size on the diversity and functional composition of frugivores visiting fruiting trees
Author's Affiliation
Mahidol University
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai
Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR)
Kasetsart University
King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi
Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology india
Wildlife Institute of India
Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore
Bhavan's College
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai
Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR)
Kasetsart University
King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi
Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology india
Wildlife Institute of India
Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore
Bhavan's College
Corresponding Author(s)
Other Contributor(s)
Abstract
The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in seed dispersal remains understudied despite its critical role in maintaining plant diversity in the tropics. Field studies on this relationship are often confounded by environmental and phylogenetic variations across species richness gradients. We examined how overall avian frugivore species richness at a site influenced the frugivore richness, visitation rates and functional composition of two key effect traits (beak width and hand-wing index) on fruiting trees. Across six sites in tropical Asia, spanning a sevenfold gradient in frugivore species richness but with similar forest types and phylogenetically nested frugivore communities, we recorded 34 014 interactions between 138 avian frugivores and 131 woody plant species. Our results provide some support for the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationship, as higher overall frugivore species richness increased the number of frugivore species visiting individual fruiting trees but not the functional composition of frugivores. Seed size had a stronger influence on the frugivore species richness, visitation rates and the beak size of visiting frugivores, highlighting the dominant role of morphological trait matching in influencing plant-frugivore interactions. Our findings suggest functional redundancy in certain aspects of seed dispersal effectiveness due to density compensation and the presence of key seed disperser lineages in species-poor sites.