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(Reference retrieved automatically from Web of Science through information on FAPESP grant and its corresponding number as mentioned in the publication by the authors.)

Determinants of fruit removal in Geonoma pauciflora, an understory palm of neotropical forests

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Author(s):
Pizo, Marco Aurelio [1] ; Almeida-Neto, Mario [2]
Total Authors: 2
Affiliation:
[1] Univ Vale Rio Sinos UNISINOS, Programa Posgrad Biol, Ctr Ciencias Saude, BR-93022000 Sao Leopoldo, RS - Brazil
[2] Univ Estadual Campinas, Inst Biol, Dept Zool, Lab Interacoes Insetos Plantas, Campinas, SP - Brazil
Total Affiliations: 2
Document type: Journal article
Source: ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH; v. 24, n. 6, p. 1179-1186, NOV 2009.
Web of Science Citations: 9
Abstract

Competition for seed dispersers is supposedly a selective force that drives the evolution of plant reproductive traits. In the understory of tropical forests, such competition should be especially severe among bird-dispersed plant species because (i) the production of copious fruit crops is limited by low light availability; (ii) there usually is a high density of fleshy fruited plants, and (iii) understory frugivorous birds are not abundant. In this paper, we took advantage of a high-density population of Geonoma pauciflora, a bird-dispersed palm species growing in the understory of the Brazilian Atlantic forest, to investigate the influence of plant traits and its immediate neighborhood on fruit removal. Intrinsic (crop and fruit sizes) and extrinsic traits (related to light availability) affected the fruit removal of G. pauciflora. Crop size had a greater influence than fruit size on the absolute number of fruits removed, whereas none of the investigated traits influenced decisively fruit removal efficiency (i.e., the proportion of an individual's crop removed). The influence of light availability was mostly indirect, through its positive influence on fruit production. A significant positive spatial autocorrelation in removal efficiency occurred among neighboring plants within a 7-m radius, which is indicative of facilitation among neighboring individuals. The consequence of such positive spatial autocorrelation in removal efficiency for clonal plants such as G. pauciflora is that by attracting a frugivore a given ramet may promote the removal of fruits of other ramets, thus enhancing the reproductive output of the genet as a whole. (AU)