DOI: 10.5061/dryad.w3r22811g
title: High importance of migratory birds for plant-frugivore interactions on reservoir islands

description: Seed dispersal by frugivorous birds is vital for forest regeneration and
 biodiversity. Migratory birds, with their long-distance dispersal
 capabilities, may play a key role in this process, yet their contribution
 to plant-frugivore interactions remains underexplored. Over three years,
 we recorded 11,635 interactions between fruiting plants and frugivorous
 birds using camera traps on 13 dam-induced forested islands. These
 interactions involved 48 bird species, including 15 migratory species.
 Migratory birds interacted with two-thirds of all plant species, and their
 species richness increased with island area. However, migratory frugivores
 constituted a higher proportion of the frugivorous bird community on
 smaller islands. Interactions involving migrants peaked consistently from
 October to January. These findings emphasize the importance of migratory
 frugivores in seed dispersal, particularly in fragmented habitats.
 Conservation efforts should focus on preserving migratory birds to sustain
 their critical ecological roles in maintaining plant-frugivore
 interactions and facilitating seed dispersal in fragmented landscapes.
description: We collected plant-frugivore interactions using arboreal camera
 traps. Specifically, our monitoring began each year in early July,
 involving exhaustive searches for fruiting plants within the transects at
 least twice a month, continuing until the end of January of the following
 year. Upon identifying plants with ripening fruits, we installed infrared
 cameras (LTL Acorn 6210 MC) at suitable locations (e.g., nearby trees or
 the fruiting plant itself, avoiding direct sunlight on the lens). The
 camera lenses were oriented towards fruit-abundant areas, with
 installation heights ranging from 0.5 m to 8.0 m depending on the location
 of the concentrated fruits. To reduce oversampling, a minimum interval of
 20 meters was maintained between cameras when monitoring the same plant
 species. When the fruits on a monitored plant were either fully consumed
 or had nearly all fallen off, we retrieved the cameras and transferred the
 SD card data to a computer. Experienced personnel manually reviewed all
 photos and videos in the lab, as detailed in recent literature
 (https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.232).
description: # High importance of migratory birds for plant-frugivore interactions on
 reservoir islands
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.w3r22811g](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.w3r22811g) ## Description of the data and file structure GENERAL INFORMATION 1\. Title of Dataset: High importance of migratory birds for plant-frugivore interactions on reservoir islands 2\. Date of data collection: 2019–2022 3\. Geographic location of data collection: Thousand Island Lake, Zhejiang, China 4\. Funding sources: the National Natural Science Foundation of China (#32371590, 32311520284, 32071545, and 32030066), the Program for Professor of Special Appointment (Eastern Scholar) (#TP2020016), the Baishanzu National Park Scientific Research Program (#2021ZDLY03), and the China Scholarship Council (#202206140074). 5\. Recommended citation for this dataset: Li et al. (2024), Data from: High importance of migratory birds for plant-frugivore interactions on reservoir islands. Dryad Digital Repository DATA & FILE OVERVIEW 1\. Data collection Plant-frugivore data have been collected through camera traps (three sampling periods) 2\. File List: ``` raw_data_species_interactions.csv: raw data of plant-frugivore interactions ``` 3\. Date that the file was created: 2024.09.13 DATA SPECIFIC INFORMATION Dataframe with 7253 rows and 9 columns. ### Files and variables #### File: raw\_data\_species\_interactions.csv **Description:**  Plant-bird interactions on 13 dam-induced forest islands. ##### Variables * site_id: name of the study site (13 islands). * island_area: island area (ha). * bird_sp: scientific names of 48 species of fruit-eating birds. Taxonomic classification followed the IOC World Bird List v13.2 (source: [https://www.worldbirdnames.org](https://www.worldbirdnames.org)). * migratory_status: categories (R, S, M, W), in which R = resident, S = Summer visitor, M = Passage, W = Winter visitor. * plant_sp: scientific names of 33 species of fruiting plants. Taxonomic classification followed *Flora of China* (source: [https://www.iplant.cn/foc).](https://www.iplant.cn/foc\).) * nb_interactions: number of interactions between plants and birds. * year: recorded year for plant-bird interactions. * month: recorded months for plant-bird interactions. * date: recorded date for plant-bird interactions.