The contribution of plant-animal interactions to biodiversity and ecosystem restoration of the Atlantic Forest

• Grant number: 18/19011-6
• Support Opportunities: BIOTA-FAPESP Program - Regular Research Grants
• Start date: May 01, 2019
• End date: April 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Agreement: Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
• Principal Investigator: Marina Corrêa Côrtes
• Grantee: Marina Corrêa Côrtes
• Principal researcher abroad: Merel B. Soons
• Institution abroad: Utrecht University (UU), Netherlands
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Marco Aurelio Pizo Ferreira ; Mathias Mistretta Pires
• Associated scholarship(s): 22/10302-3 - Data compilation of seed dispersal traits and DNA isolation from an animal-dispersed tree from natural regeneration areas, BP.TT; 21/08509-6 - Curatorship, processing and synthesis of seed dispersal traits of plants and animals from literature and field data, BP.TT; 21/08072-7 - Fruit morphometry and molecular analysis of plants dispersed by animals in naturally regenerating forests, BP.TT; 20/14215-2 - Phenology, frugivory and molecular analysis of animal-dispersed plants in naturally regenerating forests, BP.TT

Abstract

Across the world old-growth forests are rapidly diminishing due to anthropogenic forest conversion. Simultaneously, forest recovery in human-modified landscapes has led to an increase of secondary forests, which may have the potential to mitigate loss of biodiversity and provide important ecosystem services. Human impacts regulate both tree and animal abundances, but in a different way, so that in restored fragments novel communities (in terms of plant-animal interactions) are likely to develop. Important landscape characteristics such as surrounding land-use and surrounding native forest cover are likely to greatly affect the composition and functioning of these novel communities, by altering the influx of frugivorous animals, tree seeds and genotypes from neighbouring forests. In severely fragmented landscapes, such as the Atlantic forest region, this could have major societal implications if ecosystem functions such as carbon storage are compromised. Despite the recognition of plant-frugivore interactions as a critical component for successful forest regeneration, studies on forest regeneration have largely neglected the role of plant-frugivore interaction networks in this process. Thus, it remains unclear how these networks develop over time in regenerating forests and to what extent they are regulated by landscape connectivity. This project therefore addresses the complex interactions between plants and animals that enable ecosystem functioning and the provisioning of ecosystem functioning including carbon sequestration. In the proposed study we will quantify to what extent landscape connectivity affects restoration outcomes in terms of functional plant-frugivore relationships and cascading effects on carbon storage, population-level tree recruitment and genetic diversity and biodiversity conservation value in novel communities. The unique combined expertise of the Dutch and Brazilian partners allows the full range of relevant aspects to be addressed: from tree and animal communities to species interactions to ecosystem functioning and services. Specifically, we will characterize plant-frugivore interactions across second-growth forest fragments differing in age and landscape connectivity in the São Paulo Atlantic forest region. Based on our findings, we will identify priority areas within the Atlantic forest region that are most suitable for natural regeneration, and develop restoration guidelines to promote plant-frugivore interactions that enhance biodiversity and carbon sequestration where needed. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

FRIEDEMANN, PAMELA; CORREA CORTES, MARINA; RODRIGO DE CASTRO, EVERALDO; GALETTI, MAURO; JORDANO, PEDRO; GUIMARAES JR, PAULO R.. he individual-based network structure of palm-seed dispersers is explained by a rainforest gradien. OIKOS, v. 2022, n. 2, DEC 2021. (14/01986-0, 18/19011-6, 18/14809-0)

DOS SANTOS, JULIANA SILVEIRA; VITORINO, LUCIANA CRISTINA; GONCALVES, RENATA FABREGA; CORTES, MARINA CORREA; CRUZ ALVES, RAFAEL SOUZA; RIBEIRO, MILTON CEZAR; COLLEVATTI, ROSANE GARCIA. Matrix dominance and landscape resistance affect genetic variability and differentiation of an Atlantic Forest pioneer tree. LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY, v. 37, n. 10, p. 21-pg., 2022-08-14. (20/01779-5, 21/10195-0, 18/19011-6, 19/09713-6, 21/08534-0, 13/50421-2, 19/03005-0)