Patch size, shape and edge distance influences seed predation in a keystone palm in tropical rainforests

• Ano de defesa: 2014
• Autor(a) principal: Mendes, Calebe Pereira [UNESP]
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)
• Palavras-chave em Português: Ecology; Ecologia; Sementes; Predação (Biologia); Ecologia da paisagem; Palmeira; Mata Atlântica; Esquilo
• Link de acesso: http://hdl.handle.net/11449/122104

Seed predation is an important kind of ecological process that affect the abundance, diversity and distribution of plant species. Since this ecological process depends on the presence, abundance and behavior of seed predators, what it is affected by the landscape characteristics, the process of seed predation becomes also affected by the landscape characteristics. Most of studies on seed predation in human-modified landscapes do not take into account the different scales in which this process operates. Here we evaluate how landscape structure affects seed predation in a palm (Syagrus romanzoffiana) that provide a keystone resource to the frugivory community in 13 landscapes that vary in forest cover, fragment number and size in the Brazilian Atlantic forest. We found that the overall seed predation is explained by the fragment size, shape and the distance to the edge. Seed predation by the dominant vertebrate seed predator (squirrels) is also related with the fragment size and shape, and they interact with the invertebrates in such way that the invertebrate seed predation is mainly explained by the squirrel predation and by the distance to the edge. In turn, seed predation by terrestrial rodents is correlated with the habitat amount in the landscape, preying upon more seeds in landscapes with less than 30% of habitat. Our results indicate that the Syagrus romanzoffiana seed predation is more affected by the fragment variables than by landscape ones, and that patch size, shape and edge effect are more important predictors of seed predation of this palm than habitat amount in the landscape. Our results also highlights that the fragment geometry, a neglected variable in most of studies, is importance to ecological systems