DOI: 10.5061/dryad.6t1g1jwz5
title: Data from: The mutualism-antagonism continuum in Neotropical palm-frugivore interactions: from interaction outcomes to ecosystem dynamics

description: Frugivory, i.e. feeding on fruits, pulp or seeds by animals, is usually
 considered a mutualism when interactions involve seed dispersal, and an
 antagonism when it results in the predation and destruction of seeds.
 Nevertheless, most frugivory interactions involve both benefits and
 disadvantages for plants, and the net interaction outcomes thus tend to
 vary along a continuum from mutualism to antagonism. Quantifying outcome
 variation is challenging and the ecological contribution of frugivorous
 animals to plant demography thus remains little explored. This is
 particularly true for interactions in which animals do not ingest entire
 fruits, i.e. in seed-eating and pulp-eating. Here, we provide a
 comprehensive review of Neotropical palm–frugivore interactions, with a
 focus on how frugivore consumption behaviour (i.e. digestive processing,
 caching behaviour and fruit-handling ability) and feeding types
 (fruit-eating, pulp-eating and seed-eating) influence interaction outcomes
 at different demographic stages of palms. We compiled a total of 1043
 species-level palm–frugivore interaction records that explicitly captured
 information on which parts of palm fruits are eaten by animals. These
 records showed consumption of fruits of 106 Neotropical palm species by
 273 vertebrate species, especially birds (50%) and mammals (45%), but also
 fish (3%) and reptiles (2%). Fruit-eating involved all four taxonomic
 vertebrate classes whereas seed-eating and pulp-eating were only observed
 among birds and mammals. Most fruit-eating interactions (77%) resulted in
 positive interaction outcomes for plants (e.g. gut-passed seeds are viable
 or seeds are successfully dispersed), regardless of the digestive
 processing type of vertebrate consumers (seed defecation versus
 regurgitation). The majority of pulp-eating interactions (91%) also
 resulted in positive interaction outcomes, for instance via pulp removal
 that promoted seed germination or via dispersal of intact palm seeds by
 external transport, especially if animals have a good fruit-handling
 ability (e.g. primates, and some parrots). By contrast, seed-eating
 interactions mostly resulted in dual outcomes (60%), where interactions
 had both negative effects on seed survival and positive outcomes through
 seed caching and external (non-digestive) seed dispersal. A detailed
 synthesis of available field studies with qualitative and quantitative
 information provided evidence that 12 families and 27 species of mammals
 and birds are predominantly on the mutualistic side of the continuum
 whereas five mammalian families, six mammal and one reptile species are on
 the antagonistic side. The synthesis also revealed that most species can
 act as partial mutualists, even if they are typically considered
 antagonists. Our review demonstrates how different consumption behaviours
 and feeding types of vertebrate fruit consumers can influence seed
 dispersal and regeneration of palms, and thus ultimately affect the
 structure and functioning of tropical ecosystems. Variation in feeding
 types of animal consumers will influence ecosystem dynamics via effects on
 plant population dynamics and differences in long-distance seed dispersal,
 and may subsequently affect ecosystem functions such as carbon storage.
 The quantification of intra- and inter-specific variation in outcomes of
 plant–frugivore interactions – and their positive and negative effects on
 the seed-to-seedling transition of animal-dispersed plants – should be a
 key research focus to understand better the mutualism–antagonism continuum
 and its importance for ecosystem dynamics.
description: We compiled interaction
 records of animals feeding on Neotropical palm fruits by screening
 articles from a comprehensive literature search on the Web of Science
 (WoS) conducted from October 2019 to July 2021. The Neotropical realm
 comprises South America, Central America, parts of Mesoamerica (Yucatan
 Peninsula), the Caribbean, and the southern parts of Texas and Florida in
 the United States (Udvardy, 1975). We used a combination of search terms
 that included ‘fruit removal’, ‘seed dispersal’, ‘seed predation’,
 ‘frugivory’, ‘granivory’, ‘seed’, ‘fruit’, ‘palm’, ‘Arecaceae’,
 ‘Neotropics’ and all Neotropical palm genera and country names (see
 Appendix S1 for the precise combination of search terms). We also
 conducted searches on the WoS using the same search terms translated into
 French, Portuguese and Spanish, since these languages are also used for
 publications in peer-reviewed journals in the Neotropics. This combination
 of terms allowed us to identify studies that included information on
 frugivore species feeding on the fruits and seeds of palm species in the
 entire Neotropics.