| Full text | |
| Author(s): |
Oliveira, Hernani F. M.
[1]
;
Pereira Pinheiro, Rafael Barros
[2]
;
Varassin, Isabela Galarda
[3]
;
Rodriguez-Herrera, Bernal
[4]
;
Kuzmina, Maria
[5]
;
Rossiter, Stephen J.
[1]
;
Clare, Elizabeth L.
[1, 6]
Total Authors: 7
|
| Affiliation: | [1] Queen Mary Univ London, Sch Biol & Chem Sci, London - England
[2] Univ Estadual Campinas, Dept Biol Anim, Campinas - Brazil
[3] Univ Fed Parana, Dept Bot, Curitiba, Parana - Brazil
[4] Univ Costa Rica, Ctr Invest Biodiversidad & Ecol Trop, Escuela Biol, San Jose - Costa Rica
[5] Univ Guelph, Ctr Biodivers Genom, Biodivers Inst Ontario, Guelph, ON - Canada
[6] York Univ, Dept Biol, Toronto, ON - Canada
Total Affiliations: 6
|
| Document type: | Journal article |
| Source: | Molecular Ecology; v. 31, n. 6, p. 1892-1906, MAR 2022. |
| Web of Science Citations: | 0 |
| Abstract | |
Interaction network structure reflects the ecological mechanisms acting within biological communities, which are affected by environmental conditions. In tropical forests, higher precipitation usually increases fruit production, which may lead frugivores to increase specialization, resulting in more modular and less nested animal-plant networks. In these ecosystems, El Nino is a major driver of precipitation, but we still lack knowledge of how species interactions change under this influence. To understand bat-plant network structure during an extreme El Nino-Southern Oscillation event, we determined the links between plantivorous bat species and the plants they consume by DNA barcoding seeds and pulp in bat faeces. These interactions were recorded in the dry forest and rainforest of Costa Rica, during the dry and the wet seasons of an extreme El Nino year. From these we constructed seasonal and whole-year bat-plant networks and analysed their structures and dissimilarities. In general, networks had low nestedness, had high modularity, and were dominated by one large compartment which included most species and interactions. Contrary to our expectations, networks were less nested and more modular in drier conditions, both in the comparison between forest types and between seasons. We suggest that increased competition, when resources are scarce during drier seasons and habitats, lead to higher resource partitioning among bats and thus higher modularity. Moreover, we have found similar network structures between dry and rainforests during El Nino and non-El Nino years. Finally, most interaction dissimilarity among networks occurred due to interaction rewiring among species, potentially driven by seasonal changes in resource availability. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 20/06771-2 - Simple and compound network topologies in different modes of species interactions |
| Grantee: | Rafael Barros Pereira Pinheiro |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral |