Fruits signal optimization as a mediator of frugivory by animals

• Grant number: 23/01518-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: September 01, 2023
• End date: August 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Agreement: CNPq
• Principal Investigator: Marina Corrêa Côrtes
• Grantee: Marina Corrêa Côrtes
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/02943-6 - Dimensions US-São Paulo: animal biases in fruit selection and seed dispersal as drivers of biotic filters in the assembly of successional forests and their carbon capture potential, AP.BTA.TEM
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/10188-9 - Fruits signal optimization as a mediator of frugivory by animals, BP.JD

Abstract

Bats and birds consume a variety of fruit species and are responsible to keep the frugivore and seed dispersal process in small fragments. The factors that increase the trait-matching of animal-plant interactions can be a fundamental tool for fragment regenerating since bats and birds show a complementation of their ecological services. Fruit signals meet with the main sense used by animals to localize fruits at each hierarchical step of food acquisition. The evolution of traits that act as a signal to fruit-eating animals is likely to be driven by animal foraging senses, such as olfaction and vision. Despite the related trait-matching between bats and fruits scent and birds and fruits color, there is a lack of studies of attraction of these groups related to both signals. Furthermore, a huge number of chemical elements composed in fruit are related to scent and color that need to be more explored. If visual-oriented animals select fruits based on visual signals instead of olfactory ones, the goal of this proposal is to contrast the chemical compounds related to color with those related to scent and how much color and scent affect the attractiveness of bats and birds. We expect that colorful fruits will invest less in scent compounds and the emission of scent will be more attractive for bats than birds. Our results will contribute directly to phytochemical diversity knowledge and we will able to identify the traits of the fruit that are shared or exclusively selected by bats or birds based on their sensory capacities and how plants optimize consumption and seed removal. This proposal will directly contribute to the "Dimensions US-BIOTA Sao Paulo: The contribution of frugivory and seed dispersal networks to forest regeneration: from phylogeny to genes" project by adding a new set of fruit traits, been possible to better understand which are the multiple layers that determine frugivores animal attraction. (AU)