Similar functional roles despite high species and interaction turnover in seed-dispersal networks.

DEHLING D.M.; BLENDINGER P.G.; NEUSCHULZ E.L.; SANTILLAN V.; BENDER I.; MUNOZ M.; SAAVEDRA F.; STOUFFER D.B.; PERALTA G.; BOHNING-GAESE K.; QUITIAN M.; SCHLEUNING M.

Zürich

Simposio; Interaction networks and trait evolution; 2019

New Phytologist

We studied plant?bird seed-dispersal networks across South America andtested whether changes in species composition lead to correspondingchanges in the composition of species? functional roles, using twoapproaches. First, we compared changes in species composition withchanges in the composition of species interactions, species? functional traits, and species? functional roles. The networks showed an almost complete turnover in species composition and interactions but differed less in their composition of functional traits and functional roles. Second, we identified bird species with similar functional roles across all networks by combining all networks into a metanetwork and then sorting bird species into modules based on the similarity in the plant species they consumed, (i) only considering the species ID of the plants and (ii) also considering the functional traits of the plants. Modularity analysis informed by species ID could not detect species with similar functional roles in the different networks, whereas the analysis informed by species traits identified groups of bird species with similar functional roles across all networks. Comparison of species communities and interaction networks informed by species traits provide more insight into the similarity of species communities and the functional roles of species than comparisons based only on species identities.