Diet complementation as a frequency-dependent mechanism conferring advantages to rare plants via dispersal

MORÁN-LÓPEZ, TERESA; CARLO, TOMÁS A.; AMICO, GUILLERMO; MORALES, JUAN MANUEL

FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2018 vol. 32 p. 2310 - 2320

0269-8463

We used an agent-based model to test the hypothesis that diet complementation by frugivores can promote the persistence of rare plant species in communities (DCH). Models simulated bird movement, frugivory, seed dispersal and plant recruitment on landscapes that differed in their degree of fragmentation and in their degree of fruiting species mixing at the scale of frugivores? foraging decisions. Diet complementation promoted the dispersal of rare species without the need of a priori preference from birds. The effects of landscape structure on the dispersal of rare plants were small (