Cascading effects of defaunation on seed dispersal process: primate - plant interactions in the Atlantic Rainforest

• Grant number: 10/16075-1
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): February 01, 2011
• Effective date (End): December 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Mauro Galetti Rodrigues
• Grantee: Laurence Marianne Vincianne Culot
• Home Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 07/03392-6 - Effects of the defaunation gradient on plant herbivory, seed predation and dispersal: the Atlantic Rainforest perspective, AP.TEM

Abstract

Combining with a high deforestation rate, poaching in the Atlantic forest threatens plant and animal populations. Most hunted mammals are medium and large body-sized herbivores, seed dispersers or seed predators. The local extinction of this fauna creates so-called "empty forests", with vegetation apparently intact but altered in its plant-animal interactions. Therefore, cascading effects on the demographic and genetic structure of plant populations are expected, especially for large-seeded species needing large seed dispersers. This post-doctoral project aims at determining the cascading effects of defaunation on plant-animal interactions, focusing on local extinctions of large primates. We are going to determine the effect of defaunation on the demographic and genetic structure of a large-seeded species, Cryptocarya mandioccana (Lauraceae), along a defaunation gradient in the Atlantic Forest. Specifically, we pretend to determine the qualitative and quantitative contribution of each seed disperser to the reproductive success of C. mandioccana through the combination of behavioural data, field experiments and gene flow.

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)

CULOT, LAURENCE; BELLO, CAROLINA; FERREIRA BATISTA, JOAO LUIS; ZARATE DO COUTO, HILTON THADEU; GALETTI, MAURO. Synergistic effects of seed disperser and predator loss on recruitment success and long-term consequences for carbon stocks in tropical rainforests. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, v. 7, AUG 9 2017. Web of Science Citations: 12.

Development of microsatellite loci for Cryptocarya mandioccana Meisner (Lauraceae) and their genotyping success in different tissues. Hoehnea, v. 44, n. 4, p. -, Dez. 2017.