AMoveE 2014: Landon Jones
Channel: Movebank
Date: 20/05/2014

This talk was presented by Christopher Rota on 7 May 2014 as part of the Symposium on Animal Movement and the Environment, held at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh.

Jones L, Johnson, DM, 2014, "Do toucan movements mitigate clumped patterns of seed dispersal in fragmented tropical forest habitat?"

Abstract: The movements of animal dispersers create the spatial template upon which plant demography is based, especially in the tropics, where over 80% of tree species rely upon animals to disperse their seeds. Previous research and mathematical simulations indicate that fragmentation of tropical forest habitat for human use can increase clumped patterns of animal-mediated seed dispersal compared to continuous forest. We tested the hypothesis that large animals are able to mitigate the effects of clumping on seed dispersal in fragmented tropical forest by moving long distances before dispersing seeds, producing patterns comparable to those found in continuous forest. We radio-tracked 23 individuals of two species of toucans, the Collared Aracari (Pteroglossus torquatus) and Keel-billed Toucan (Ramphastos sulfuratus), in a fragmented mosaic of agricultural habitats and secondary rainforest in Turrialba, Costa Rica from January 2011 to May 2012. We estimated seed dispersal by toucans in mathematical simulations parameterized from these movement data and seed retention times from an additional study with captive individuals. Simulations indicated that toucan movements created even patterns of seed dispersal in fragmented habitats, comparable to those in continuous forest habitat based primarily on the use of four key structures in agricultural habitats: forest edge, agricultural plantations with trees, live fences, and remnant trees.