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

DEHLING, D. MATTHIAS; BENDER, IRENE M. A.; BLENDINGER PG; BÖHNING-GAESE, KATRIN; MUÑOZ, MARCIA C.; NEUSCHULZ, EIKE LENA; QUITIÁN, MARTA; SAAVEDRA, FRANCISCO; SANTILLÁN, VINICIO; SCHLEUNING, MATTHIAS; STOUFFER DB

Zürich

Simposio; Symposium: Interaction networks and trait evolution. 43rd New Phytologist Symposium; 2019

Similar functional roles despite high species and interaction turnover in seed-dispersal networksD. M. DEHLING1, G. PERALTA1, I. BENDER2, P. G. BLENDINGER3, K. BÖHNING-GAESE2, M. MUÑOZ2, E. L. NEUSCHULZ2, M. QUITIÁN2, F. SAAVEDRA2, V. SANTILLÁN2, M. SCHLEUNING2, D. B. STOUFFER1. 1 Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. 2 Senckenberg Biodiversiy and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. 3 Instituto de Ecología Regional, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, CC34, 4107 Yerba Buena, Tucumán, Argentina.We studied plant-bird seed-dispersal networks across South America and tested whether changes in species composition lead to corresponding changes in the composition of species? functional roles, using two approaches. First, we compared changes in species composition with changes in the composition of species interactions, species? functional traits, and species? 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. The networks showed an almost complete turnover in species composition and interactions but differed less in their composition of functional traits and functional roles. 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.