MECHANISMS OF SPECIALIZATIONS INVOLVING PLANTS AND FRUGIVORES

• Grant number: 13/20538-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: December 16, 2013
• End date: February 05, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Marco Aurelio Pizo Ferreira
• Grantee: Marco Aurelio Pizo Ferreira
• Host Investigator: Pedro Jordano
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Estación Biológica de Doñana, Spain

Abstract

Specialization (i.e., the limitation in the number of other species with which a particular species interacts) between plants and frugivores are thought to be rare in nature, but we can find many cases of putative specialization scattered in the literature. The mechanisms mediating such interactions are even less known. The objective of this proposal is to produce a review of specialization involving plants and frugivorous animals and the mechanisms supposedly promoting such specialization. More than simply producing a list of cases, we would provide a critical evaluation of the occurrence of such specialization, focusing on its frequency, taxonomic and geographical incidence to answer the following questions: (1) Are specialized plants associated with certain phylogenetic clades? (2) Are specialized plants associated with certain frugivore group? (3) Is there any plant or environmental features that favor specialization with frugivores? (4) Is there a non-random association between certain mechanisms of specialization and certain plant phylogenetic clades? Such a comprehensive review will help to understand the evolution and maintenance of species interactions in general, and specialized interactions in particular, a goal relevant not only from the evolutionary point of view but also to the conservation of species.