Abstract
Seed dispersal plays a critical role in rainforest regeneration patterns, hence loss of avian seed dispersers in fragmented landscapes may disrupt forest regeneration dynamics. To predict whether or not a plant will be dispersed in fragmented forests, it is necessary to have information about frugivorous bird distribution and dietary composition. However, specific dietary information for frugivorous birds is often limited. In such cases, information on the seed-crushing behaviour, gape width and relative dietary dominance by fruit may be used to describe functional groups of bird species with respect to their potential to disperse similar seeds. We used this information to assess differences in the seed dispersal potential of frugivorous bird assemblages in a fragmented rainforest landscape of southeast Queensland, Australia. The relative abundance of frugivorous birds was surveyed in extensive, remnant and regrowth rainforest sites (16 replicates of each). Large-gaped birds with mixed diets and medium-gaped birds with fruit-dominated diets were usually less abundant in remnants and regrowth than in continuous forest. Small-gaped birds with mixed diets and birds with fruit as a minor dietary component were most abundant in regrowth. We recorded a similar number of seed-crushing birds and large-gaped birds with fruit-dominated diets across site types. Bird species that may have the greatest potential to disperse a large volume and wide variety of plants, including large-seeded plants, tended to be less abundant outside of extensive forests, although one species, the figbird Sphecotheres viridis, was much more abundant in these areas. The results suggest that the dispersal of certain plant taxa would be limited in this fragmented landscape, although the potential for the dispersal of large-seeded plants may remain, despite the loss of several large-gaped disperser species.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adam P (1992) Australian rainforests. Oxford University Press, New York
Alcantara JM, Rey PJ, Valera F, Sanchez-Lafuentes AM (2000) Factors shaping the seedfall pattern of a bird-dispersed plant. Ecology 81:1937–1950
Barker RD, Vestjens WJM (1988) The food of Australian birds: non-passerines. CSIRO, Melbourne
Barker RD, Vestjens WJM (1989) The food of Australian birds: passerines. CSIRO, Melbourne
Belbin L (2003) PATN for Windows. Version 2.28. CSIRO, The University of Queensland
Blakers M, Davies SJJF, Reilly PN (1984) The atlas of Australian birds. RAOU and Melbourne University Press, Melbourne
Catterall CP, Storey RJ, Kingston MB (1997) Reality versus rhetoric: a case study monitoring regional deforestation. In: Hale P, Lamb D (eds) Conservation outside nature reserves. Centre for Conservation Biology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, pp 367–377
Chapman CA, Onderdonk DA (1998) Forests without primates: primate/plant codependency. Am J Primatol 45:127–141
Christidis L, Boles WE (1994) The taxonomy and species of birds of Australia and its territories, Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, Monograph 2. RAOU, Melbourne
Cipollini ML, Levey DJ (1997) Secondary metabolites of fleshy vertebrate-dispersed fruits: adaptive hypotheses and implications for seed dispersal. Am Nat 150:346–372
Clarke KR, Green RH (1988) Statistical design and analysis for a ‘biological effects’ study. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 46:213–226
Corlett RT (2002) Frugivory and seed dispersal in degraded tropical east Asian landscapes. In: Levey DJ, Silva WR, Galetti M (eds) Seed dispersal and frugivory. CABI, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, pp 451–465
Crome FJH (1975) The ecology of fruit pigeons in tropical northern Queensland. Aust Wildl Res 2:155–185
Crome FJH (1990) Vertebrates and successions. In: Webb LJ, Kikkawa J (eds) Australian tropical rainforests: science—value—meaning. CSIRO, Canberra, pp 53–64
Crome FJH, Shields J (1992) Parrots and pigeons of Australia. Collins Angus and Robinson, Sydney
Crome FJH, Isaacs J, Moore L (1994) The utility to birds and mammals of remnant riparian vegetation and associated windbreaks in the tropical Queensland uplands. Pac Cons Biol 1:328–343
Date EM, Ford HA, Recher HE (1991) Frugivorous pigeons, stepping stones and weed in northern New South Wales. In: Saunders DA, Hobbs RJ (eds) Nature conservation 2: the role of corridors. Surrey Beatty, Sydney, pp 241–244
Date EM, Recher HF, Ford HA, Stewart DA (1996) The conservation and ecology of rainforest pigeons in northeastern New South Wales. Pac Conserv Biol 2: 299–308
Estrada A, Coates-Estrada R, Meritt D Jr, Monteil S, Curiel D (1993) Patterns of frugivore species richness and abundance in forest islands and in agricultural habitats at Los Tuxtlas, Mexico. Vegetatio 107/108:245–257
Faith DP, Minchin PR, Belbin L (1987) Compositional dissimilarity as a robust measure of ecological distance. Vegetatio 69:57–68
Frith HJ (1952) Notes on the pigeons of the Richmond River, NSW. Emu 52:89–99
Frith HJ (1982) Pigeons and doves of Australia. Rigby, Adelaide
Fuentes M (1994) Diets of fruit-eating birds: what are the causes of interspecific differences? Oecologia 97:134–142
Galindo-González J, Guevara S, Sosa VJ (2000) Bat- and bird-generated seed rains at isolated trees in pastures in a tropical rainforest. Cons Biol 14:1693–1703
Gautier-Hion A, Duplantier JM, Quiris R, Feer F, Decoux JP, Dubost GF, Emmons L, Erard C, Hecketsweiler P, Moungazi A (1985) Fruit characters as a basis of fruit choice and seed dispersal in a tropical forest vertebrate community. Oecologia 55:324–333
Gorchov DL, Cornejo F, Ascorra C, Jaramillo M (1993) The role of seed dispersal in the natural regeneration of rain forest after strip-cutting in the Peruvian Amazon. In: Fleming TH, Estrada A (eds) Frugivory and seed dispersal: ecological and evolutionary aspects. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 339–349
Green RJ (1993) Avian seed dispersal in and near subtropical rainforests. Wildl Res 20:535–557
Green RJ (1995) Using frugivores for regeneration: a survey of knowledge and problems in Australia. In: Bissonette JA, Krausman PR (eds) Integrating people and wildlife for a sustainable future. The Wildlife Society, Maryland, pp 1–11
Herrera CM (1981) Are tropical fruits more rewarding than temperate ones? Am Nat 118:896–907
Higgins PJ (1999) Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic birds, vol 4, parrots to dollarbirds. Oxford University Press, Melbourne
Higgins PJ, Davies SJJF (1996) Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, vol 3, snipe to pigeons. Oxford University Press, Melbourne
Higgins PJ, Peter JM, Steele WK (2001) Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic birds, vol 5, tyrant-flycatchers to chats. Oxford University Press, Melbourne
Howe RW, Howe TD, Ford HA (1981) Bird distributions on small rainforest remnants in New South Wales. Aust Wildl Res 8:637–651
Innes GJ (1989) Feeding ecology of fruit pigeons in subtropical rainforests of south-eastern Queensland. Aust Wildl Res 16:365–394
Izhaki I, Safriel UN (1989) Why are there so few exclusively frugivorous birds? Experiments on fruit digestibility. Oikos 54:23–32
Janzen DH, Vásquez-Yanez C (1991) Aspects of tropical seed ecology of relevance to management of tropical forest wildlands. In: Gomez-Pompa A, Whitmore TC, Hadley M (eds) Rainforest regeneration and management (man and the biosphere series, vol 6). UNESCO and Parthenon Publishing, Paris, pp 137–158
Jones RE, Crome FHJ (1990) The biological web—plant/animal interactions in the rainforest. In: Webb LJ, Kikkawa J (eds) Tropical rainforests: science—value—meaning. CSIRO, Canberra, pp 74–87
Kanowski J, Catterall CP, Dennis AJ, Westcott DA (2004a) Animal-plant interactions in rainforest conservation and restoration. Rainforest CRC, Cairns
Kanowski J, Catterall CP, Reis T, Wardell-Johnson GW(2004b) Animal-plant interactions in rainforest restoration in tropical and subtropical Australia. In: Kanowski J, Catterall CP, Dennis AJ, Westcott DA (eds) Animal-plant interactions in rainforest conservation and restoration. Rainforest CRC, Cairns, pp 20–24
Kitamura S, Yumoto T, Poonswad P, Chuailua P, Plongmai K, Maruhashi T, Noma N (2002) Interactions between fleshy fruits and frugivores in a tropical seasonal forest in Thailand. Oecologia 133:559–572
Laurance WF, Gordon CF, Perry E (1996) Structure of breeding bird communities in rainforest and regrowth forest in tropical Queensland. Sunbird 26:1–15
Loiselle BA, Blake JG (2002) Potential consequences of extinction of frugivorous birds for shrubs of a tropical wet forest. In: Levey DJ, Silva WR, Galetti M (eds) Seed dispersal and frugivory. CABI, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, pp 397–406
Marchant S, Higgins PJ (1993) Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic birds, vol 2, raptors to lapwings. Oxford University Press, Melbourne
Martinez del Rio C, Restreppo C (1994) Ecological and behavioural consequences of digestion in frugivorous animals. Vegetatio 197/108:205–216
McConkey KR, Drake DR (2002) Extinct pigeons and declining bat populations: are large seeds still being dispersed in the tropical Pacific? In: Levey DJ, Silva WR, Galetti M (eds) Seed dispersal and frugivory. CABI, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, pp 381–395
McKey D (1975) The ecology of coevolved seed dispersal systems. In: Gilbert E, Raven PH (eds) Coevolution of animals and plants. University of Texas, Austin, pp 159–191
Meier L, Figgis P (1985) Rainforests of Australia. Ure Smith, Sydney
Moermond TC, Denslow JS (1983) Fruit choice in neotropical birds: effect of fruit type and accessibility on selectivity. J Anim Ecol 52:407–420
Moermond TC, Denslow JS (1985) Neotropical frugivores: patterns of behaviour, morphology and nutrition with consequences for fruit selection. Ornithol Monogr 36:865–897
Moermond TC, Denslow JS, Levey DJ, Santana E (1986) The influence of morphology on fruit choice in neotropical birds. In: Estrada A, Fleming TH (eds) Frugivores and seed dispersal. Junk, Dordrecht, pp 137–146
Moran C, Catterall CP, Green RJ, Olsen MF (2004) Fates of feathered fruit-eaters in fragmented forests. In: Lunney D (ed) Conservation of Australia’s forest fauna, vol. 2 (in press)
Patterson BD (1987) The principle of nested subsets and its implications for biological conservation. Cons Biol 1:323–334
Poschlod P, Bakker J, Bonn S, Fischer S (1996) Dispersal of plants in fragmented landscapes. In: Settele J, Margules CR, Poschlod P, Henle K (eds) Species survival in fragmented landscapes. Kluwer, Netherlands, pp 123–127
Price OF (1999a) Conservation of frugivorous birds and monsoon rainforest patches in the Northern Territory. PhD Thesis, Australian National University
Price OF, Woinarski JCZ, Robinson D (1999b) Very large area requirements for frugivorous birds in monsoon rainforests of the Northern Territory, Australia. Biol Cons 91:169–180
Recher HF, Date EM, Ford HA (1995) The biology and management of rainforest pigeons in New South Wales (Species management report No. 16). NSW National Parks and Wildlife, Hurstville
Richardson DM, Allsopp N, D’Antonio CM, Milton SJ, Rejmanek M (2000) Plant invasions—the role of mutualisms. Biol Rev 75:65–93
Silva JMC, Tabarelli M (2000) Tree species impoverishment and the future flora of the Atlantic forest of northeast Brazil. Nature 404:72–73
Silva JMC, Uhl C, Murray G (1996) Plant succession, landscape management and the ecology of frugivorous birds in abandoned Amazonian pastures. Cons Biol 10:491–513
Snow DW (1981) Tropical frugivorous birds and their food plants: a world survey. Biotropica 3:1–14
SPSS (2001) SPSS For Windows. Rel 10.1.3. SPSS, Chicago
Stiles EW, White DW (1986) Seed deposition patterns: influence of season, nutrients and vegetation structure. In: Estrada A, Fleming TH (eds) Frugivores and seed dispersal. Junk, Dordrecht, pp 45–54
Terborgh J (1986) Community aspects of frugivory in tropical forests. In: Estrada A, Fleming TH (eds) Frugivores and seed dispersal. Junk, Dordrecht, pp 371–384
Terborgh J, Pitman N, Silman M, Schichter H, Núñez PV (2002) Maintenance of tree diversity in tropical forests. In: Levey DJ, Silva WR, Galetti M (eds) Seed dispersal and frugivory. CABI, Wallingford, Oxon, pp 1–17
Wheelwright NT (1985) Fruit size, gape width, and the diets of fruit-eating birds. Ecology 66:808–818
Whelan CJ, Willson MF (1994) Fruit choice in migrating North American birds: field and aviary experiments. Oikos 71:137–151
Willson MF, Irvine AK, Walsh NG (1989) Vertebrate dispersal syndromes in some Australian and New Zealand plant communities, with geographic comparisons. Biotropica 21:133–147
Witmer MC, van Soerst PJ (1998) Contrasting digestive strategies of fruit-eating birds. Funct Ecol 12:728–741
Woinarski JCZ (1993) A cut-and-paste community: birds of monsoon rainforests in Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory. Emu 93:100–120
Woodford R (2000) Converting a dairy farm back to a rainforest water catchment. Ecol Manage Restor 1:83–92
Young PAR, McDonald WJF (1987) The distribution, composition and status of the rainforests of southern Queensland. In: Werren GI, Kershaw AP (eds) The rainforest legacy. Special Australian heritage publication series number 7 (1), Canberra, pp 119–142
Acknowledgements
Cath Moran was supported by a Commonwealth postgraduate award during this project. Funding for field research was provided by the Rainforest Cooperative Research Centre. The support of landholders and custodians of study sites is gratefully acknowledged. Queensland Museum staff, especially Heather Janetski provided access to and assistance with bird collections. Dave Curmi helped with field survey site set-up and Chris Stansbury and John Kanowski with bird gape measurement. Thanks to members of the wildlife ecology discussion group at Griffith University for providing useful suggestions and discussions, especially John Kanowski and Stephen McKenna for insightful comments on drafts of the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Moran, C., Catterall, C., Green, R. et al. Functional variation among frugivorous birds: implications for rainforest seed dispersal in a fragmented subtropical landscape. Oecologia 141, 584–595 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-004-1685-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-004-1685-1