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

Diego F. Correa*, Pablo R. Stevenson, Maria Natalia Umaña, Luiz de Souza Coelho, Diógenes de Andrade Lima Filho, Rafael P. Salomão, Iêda Leão do Amaral, Florian Wittmann, Francisca Dionízia de Almeida Matos, Carolina V. Castilho, Oliver L. Phillips, Juan Ernesto Guevara, Marcelo de Jesus Veiga Carim, William E. Magnusson, Daniel Sabatier, Jean‐François Molino, Mariana Victória Irume, Maria Pires Martins, José Renan da Silva Guimarães, Olaf S. BánkiMaria Teresa Fernandez Piedade, Nigel C. A. Pitman, Abel Monteagudo Mendoza, José Ferreira Ramos, Bruno Garcia Luize, Evlyn Márcia Moraes de Leão Novo, Percy Núñez Vargas, Thiago Sanna Freire Silva, Eduardo Martins Venticinque, Angelo Gilberto Manzatto, Neidiane Farias Costa Reis, John W. Terborgh, Katia Regina Casula, Euridice N. Honorio Coronado, Juan Carlos Montero, Jochen Schöngart, Dairon Cárdenas López, Flávia R. C. Costa, Adriano Costa Quaresma, Charles Eugene Zartman, Timothy J. Killeen, Beatriz S. Marimon, Ben Hur Marimon‐Junior, Rodolfo Vasquez, Bonifacio Mostacedo, Layon O. Demarchi, Ted R. Feldpausch, Rafael L. Assis, Christopher Baraloto, Julien Engel, Pascal Petronelli, Hernán Castellanos, Marcelo Brilhante de Medeiros, Marcelo Fragomeni Simon, Ana Andrade, José Luís Camargo, Susan G. W. Laurance, William F. Laurance, Lorena Maniguaje Rincón, Juliana Schietti, Thaiane R. Sousa, Emanuelle de Sousa Farias, Maria Aparecida Lopes, José Leonardo Lima Magalhães, Henrique Eduardo Mendonça Nascimento, Helder Lima de Queiroz, Gerardo A. Aymard C., Roel Brienen, Juan David Cardenas Revilla, Ima Célia Guimarães Vieira, Bruno Barçante Ladvocat Cintra, Yuri Oliveira Feitosa, Joost F. Duivenvoorden, Hugo F. Mogollón, Alejandro Araujo‐Murakami, Leandro Valle Ferreira, José Rafael Lozada, James A. Comiskey, José Julio de Toledo, Gabriel Damasco, Nállarett Dávila, Roosevelt García‐Villacorta, Aline Lopes, Alberto Vicentini, Freddie C. Draper, Nicolás Castaño Arboleda, Fernando Cornejo Valverde, Alfonso Alonso, Francisco Dallmeier, Vitor H. F. Gomes, David Neill, Daniel P. P. de Aguiar, Luzmila Arroyo, Fernanda Antunes Carvalho, Fernanda Coelho de Souza, Dário Dantas do Amaral, Kenneth J. Feeley, Rogerio Gribel, Marcelo Petratti Pansonato, Jos Barlow, Erika Berenguer, Joice Ferreira, Paul V. A. Fine, Marcelino Carneiro Guedes, Eliana M. Jimenez, Juan Carlos Licona, Maria Cristina Peñuela Mora, Boris Eduardo Villa Zegarra, Carlos Cerón, Émile Fonty, Terry W. Henkel, John Ethan Householder, Paul Maas, Marcos Silveira, Juliana Stropp, Raquel Thomas, Flávia Machado Durgante, Tim R. Baker, Doug Daly, Isau Huamantupa‐Chuquimaco, William Milliken, Toby Pennington, Marcos Ríos Paredes, Pardo Molina, Alfredo Fuentes, Bente Klitgaard, José Luis Marcelo Peña, Carlos A. Peres, Miles R. Silman, J. Sebastián Tello, Wegliane Campelo, Jerome Chave, Anthony Di Fiore, Renato Richard Hilário, Juan Fernando Phillips, Gonzalo Rivas‐Torres, Tinde R. van Andel, Patricio von Hildebrand, Luciana de Oliveira Pereira, Edelcilio Marques Barbosa, Flávia Rodrigues Barbosa, Luiz Carlos de Matos Bonates, Rainiellen de Sá Carpanedo, Hilda Paulette Dávila Doza, Ricardo Zárate Gómez, Therany Gonzales, George Pepe Gallardo Gonzales, Bruce Hoffman, André Braga Junqueira, Yadvinder Malhi, Ires Paula de Andrade Miranda, Linder Felipe Mozombite Pinto, Adriana Prieto, Domingos de Jesus Rodrigues, Agustín Rudas, Ademir R. Ruschel, Natalino Silva, César I. A. Vela, Vincent Antoine Vos, Stanford Zent, Egleé L. Zent, Janaína Costa Noronha, Bianca Weiss Albuquerque, Angela Cano, Yrma Andreina Carrero Márquez, Janaina Barbosa Pedrosa Costa, Bernardo Monteiro Flores, David Galbraith, Milena Holmgren, Michelle Kalamandeen, Marcelo Trindade Nascimento, Alexandre A. Oliveira, Hirma Ramirez‐Angulo, Maira Rocha, Veridiana Vizoni Scudeller, Rodrigo Sierra, Milton Tirado, Geertje van der Heijden, Emilio Vilanova Torre, Corine Vriesendorp, Maihyra Marina Pombo, Manuel Augusto Ahuite Reategui, Cláudia Baider, Henrik Balslev, Sasha Cárdenas, Luisa Fernanda Casas, William Farfan‐Rios, Cid Ferreira, Reynaldo Linares‐Palomino, Casimiro Mendoza, Italo Mesones, Armando Torres‐Lezama, Ligia Estela Urrego Giraldo, Daniel Villarroel, Roderick Zagt, Germaine Alexander Parada, Miguel N. Alexiades, Edmar Almeida de Oliveira, Karina Garcia‐Cabrera, Lionel Hernandez, Walter Palacios Cuenca, Susamar Pansini, Daniela Pauletto, Freddy Ramirez Arevalo, Adeilza Felipe Sampaio, Elvis H. Valderrama Sandoval, Luis Valenzuela Gamarra, Hans ter Steege

*Corresponding author for this work

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11 Citations (Scopus)
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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.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)49-69
Number of pages21
JournalGlobal Ecology and Biogeography
Volume32
Issue number1
Early online date24 Oct 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2023

Keywords

  • Amazonian rain forests
  • Anemochory
  • Dispersal agents
  • Disperser‐availability hypothesis
  • Endozoochory
  • Flooded forests
  • Hydrochory
  • Resource‐availability hypothesis
  • Synzoochory
  • Terra‐firme forests

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