Geographic patterns of tree dispersal modes in Amazonia and their ecological correlates

Abstract

Aim

To investigate the geographic patterns and ecological correlates in the geographic distribution of the most common tree dispersal modes in Amazonia (endozoochory, synzoochory, anemochory and hydrochory). We examined if the proportional abundance of these dispersal modes could be explained by the availability of dispersal agents (disperser-availability hypothesis) and/or the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits (resource-availability hypothesis).

Time period

Tree-inventory plots established between 1934 and 2019.

Major taxa studied

Trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 9.55 cm.

Location

Amazonia, here defined as the lowland rain forests of the Amazon River basin and the Guiana Shield.

Methods

We assigned dispersal modes to a total of 5433 species and morphospecies within 1877 tree-inventory plots across terra-firme, seasonally flooded, and permanently flooded forests. We investigated geographic patterns in the proportional abundance of dispersal modes. We performed an abundance-weighted mean pairwise distance (MPD) test and fit generalized linear models (GLMs) to explain the geographic distribution of dispersal modes.

Results

Anemochory was significantly, positively associated with mean annual wind speed, and hydrochory was significantly higher in flooded forests. Dispersal modes did not consistently show significant associations with the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits. A lower dissimilarity in dispersal modes, resulting from a higher dominance of endozoochory, occurred in terra-firme forests (excluding podzols) compared to flooded forests.

Main conclusions

The disperser-availability hypothesis was well supported for abiotic dispersal modes (anemochory and hydrochory). The availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits seems an unlikely explanation for the distribution of dispersal modes in Amazonia. The association between frugivores and the proportional abundance of zoochory requires further research, as tree recruitment not only depends on dispersal vectors but also on conditions that favour or limit seedling recruitment across forest types.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Correa, DF Stevenson, PR Umaña, MN Coelho, LDS Lima Filho, DDA Salomão, RP Amaral, ILD Wittmann, F Matos, FDDA Castilho, CV Phillips, OL https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8993-6168 Guevara, JE Carim, MDJV Magnusson, WE Sabatier, D Molino, J Irume, MV Martins, MP Guimarães, JRDS Bánki, OS Piedade, MTF Pitman, NCA Monteagudo Mendoza, A Ramos, JF Luize, BG Novo, EMMDL Núñez Vargas, P Silva, TSF Venticinque, EM Manzatto, AG Reis, NFC Terborgh, JW Casula, KR Honorio Coronado, EN Montero, JC Schöngart, J Cárdenas López, D Costa, FRC Quaresma, AC Zartman, CE Killeen, TJ Marimon, BS Marimon‐Junior, BH Vasquez, R Mostacedo, B Demarchi, LO Feldpausch, TR Assis, RL Baraloto, C Engel, J Petronelli, P Castellanos, H Medeiros, MBD Simon, MF Andrade, A Camargo, JL Laurance, SGW Laurance, WF Maniguaje Rincón, L Schietti, J Sousa, TR Farias, EDS Lopes, MA Magalhães, JLL Nascimento, HEM Queiroz, HLD Aymard C., GA Brienen, R Cardenas Revilla, JD Vieira, ICG Cintra, BBL Feitosa, YO Duivenvoorden, JF Mogollón, HF Araujo‐Murakami, A Ferreira, LV Lozada, JR Comiskey, JA de Toledo, JJ Damasco, G Dávila, N García‐Villacorta, R Lopes, A Vicentini, A Draper, FC Castaño Arboleda, N Cornejo Valverde, F Alonso, A Dallmeier, F Gomes, VHF Neill, D de Aguiar, DPP Arroyo, L Carvalho, FA de Souza, FC Amaral, DDD Feeley, KJ Gribel, R Pansonato, MP Barlow, J Berenguer, E Ferreira, J Fine, PVA Guedes, MC Jimenez, EM Licona, JC Peñuela Mora, MC Villa Zegarra, BE Cerón, C Fonty, É Henkel, TW Householder, JE Maas, P Silveira, M Stropp, J Thomas, R Durgante, FM Baker, TR https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3251-1679 Daly, D Huamantupa‐Chuquimaco, I Milliken, W Pennington, T Ríos Paredes, M Molina, P Fuentes, A Klitgaard, B Marcelo Peña, JL Peres, CA Silman, MR Tello, JS Campelo, W Chave, J Di Fiore, A Hilário, RR Phillips, JF Rivas‐Torres, G van Andel, TR von Hildebrand, P Pereira, LDO Barbosa, EM Barbosa, FR Bonates, LCDM Carpanedo, RDS Dávila Doza, HP Zárate Gómez, R Gonzales, T Gallardo Gonzales, GP Hoffman, B Junqueira, AB Malhi, Y Miranda, IPDA Mozombite Pinto, LF Prieto, A Rodrigues, DDJ Rudas, A Ruschel, AR Silva, N Vela, CIA Vos, VA Zent, S Zent, EL Noronha, JC Albuquerque, BW Cano, A Carrero Márquez, YA Costa, JBP Flores, BM Galbraith, D Holmgren, M Kalamandeen, M Nascimento, MT Oliveira, AA Ramirez‐Angulo, H Rocha, M Scudeller, VV Sierra, R Tirado, M van der Heijden, G Vilanova Torre, E Vriesendorp, C Pombo, MM Ahuite Reategui, MA Baider, C Balslev, H Cárdenas, S Casas, LF Farfan‐Rios, W Ferreira, C Linares‐Palomino, R Mendoza, C Mesones, I Torres‐Lezama, A Urrego Giraldo, LE Villarroel, D Zagt, R Parada, GA Alexiades, MN de Oliveira, EA Garcia‐Cabrera, K Hernandez, L Palacios Cuenca, W Pansini, S Pauletto, D Ramirez Arevalo, F Sampaio, AF Valderrama Sandoval, EH Valenzuela Gamarra, L ter Steege, H
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© 2022 The Authors. Global Ecology and Biogeography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Keywords:	Amazonian rain forests; anemochory; dispersal agents; disperser-availability hypothesis; endozoochory; flooded forests; hydrochory; resource-availability hypothesis; synzoochory; terra-firme forests
Dates:	Published: January 2023 Published (online): 24 October 2022
Institution:	The University of Leeds
Academic Units:	The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > Ecology & Global Change (Leeds)
Depositing User:	Symplectic Publications
Date Deposited:	17 May 2023 14:16
Last Modified:	17 May 2023 14:16
Published Version:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/geb.13596
Status:	Published
Publisher:	Wiley
Identification Number:	10.1111/geb.13596
Related URLs:	Author
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:199161

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Geographic patterns of tree dispersal modes in Amazonia and their ecological correlates

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