ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Ecol. Evol.
Sec. Conservation and Restoration Ecology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fevo.2025.1567678
Differences in bird and bat traits, seed-dispersal interactions and functions between tropical montane forest and bracken-dominated areas
Provisionally accepted
- 1National Herbarium of Bolivia, Higher University of San Andrés, La Paz, Bolivia
- 2Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt (Main), Germany
- 3Instituto de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Puras y Naturales, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz, La Paz, Bolivia
- 4Department of Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Institute for Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences I, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
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Most tropical plant species depend on animals to disperse their seeds. Seed dispersal by animals allows plants to colonize new sites in deforested habitats helping to accelerate forest recovery. However, deforestation can affect the interactions between animals and plants that are crucial for forest regeneration. In this study, we analyze the differences on the composition of functional traits and on seed-dispersal interactions and functions by birds and bats between forest and deforested areas dominated by bracken fern. At eight study sites, we captured birds and bats in brackendominated areas and at forest in the tropical montane forest of Bolivia and analyzed their droppings. We found a similar composition of functional traits related to animal size, gape width and degree of frugivory of bats in both habitat types. Hand-wing index of birds was significantly higher in bracken compared to forest. Birds had more interaction richness and abundance in bracken than in forest, and bats had more interaction abundance in forest than in bracken. The majority of seeds dispersed by birds and bats in bracken were from pioneer species. We conclude that, although seed dispersal by birds and bats is maintained in the bracken-dominated areas, most of the dispersed seeds belong to pioneer species. Pioneer species are unlikely to establish in bracken-dominated areas, making the natural regeneration process of these deforested areas very slow.
Keywords: Forest regeneration, frugivory, mist nets, Non-pioneer, Pioneer, Pteridium
Received: 27 Jan 2025; Accepted: 04 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mayta, Schleuning, López, Villegas, Hensen and Gallegos. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Cesar Mayta, National Herbarium of Bolivia, Higher University of San Andrés, La Paz, Bolivia
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