Anomalous, extreme weather disrupts obligate seed dispersal mutualism: snow in a subtropical forest ecosystem

Global Change Biology - Tập 19 Số 9 - Trang 2867-2877 - 2013
Youbing Zhou1,2,3, Chris Newman2, Jin Chen3, Zongqiang Xie1, David W. Macdonald2
1State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 20 Nanxincun, Xiangshan, Beijing 100093, China
2Wildlife Conservation Research Unit Department of Zoology The Recanati-Kaplan Centre University of Oxford Tubney House, Tubney Abingdon OX13 5QL UK
3Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China

Tóm tắt

Abstract

Ongoing global climate change is predicted to increase the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events, impacting population dynamics and community structure. There is, however, a critical lack of case studies considering how climatic perturbations affect biotic interactions. Here, we document how an obligate seed dispersal mutualism was disrupted by a temporally anomalous and meteorologically extreme interlude of unseasonably frigid weather, with accompanying snowstorms, in subtropical China, during January–February 2008. Based on the analysis of 5892 fecal samples (representing six mammalian seed dispersers), this event caused a substantial disruption to the relative seed dispersal function for the raisin tree Hovenia dulcis from prestorm 6.29 (2006) and 11.47 (2007), down to 0.35 during the storm (2008). Crucially, this was due to impacts on mammalian seed dispersers and not due to a paucity of fruit, where 4.63 fruit per branch were available in January 2008, vs. 3.73 in 2006 and 3.58 in 2007. An induced dietary shift occurred among omnivorous carnivores during this event, from the consumption fruit to small mammals and birds, reducing their role in seed dispersal substantially. Induced range shift extinguished the functionality of herbivorous mammals completely, however, seed dispersal function was compensated in part by three omnivorous carnivores during poststorm years, and thus while the mutualism remained intact it was enacted by a narrower assemblage of species, rendering the system more vulnerable to extrinsic perturbations. The storm's extended effects also had anthropogenic corollaries – migrating ungulates becoming exposed to heightened levels of illegal hunting – causing long‐term modification to the seed dispersal community and mutualism dynamics. Furthermore, degraded forests proved especially vulnerable to the storm's effects. Considering increasing climate variability and anthropogenic disturbance, the impacts of such massive, aberrant events warrant conservation concern, while affording unique insights into the stability of mutualisms and the processes that structure biodiversity and mediate ecosystem dynamics.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

10.1126/science.1199092

10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02565.x

10.1016/j.tree.2005.11.018

Bumpus HC, 1899, The elimination of the unfit as illustrated by the introduced sparrow, Passer domesticus, Biological Lectures, 6, 209

10.1073/pnas.1010070108

10.1126/science.1206432

10.1038/35098093

10.1088/1748-9326/7/1/014007

10.1073/pnas.2331023100

10.1641/B570206

10.1098/rsbl.2009.0688

10.1126/science.289.5487.2068

10.1038/nature02808

10.1126/science.1205106

10.1890/07-1012.1

10.1111/j.1461-0248.2005.00868.x

10.1086/284822

10.1111/j.1095-8339.1993.tb00308.x

10.1111/1365-2656.12024

10.1126/science.1087139

10.1098/rspb.2000.1089

10.1644/08-MAMM-A-050.1

10.1890/08-1332.1

10.1086/338510

10.1111/j.1365-2486.2012.02712.x

IPCC, 2007, Climate Change 2007: synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, pp. 104.

IPCC, 2012, A Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, pp. 582

10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00553.x

10.2307/1937007

10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01690.x

10.1038/ncomms1213

10.1093/icb/25.4.955

10.1111/j.1365-2907.2011.00183.x

10.1890/ES12-00121.1

10.3354/cr032143

10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01637.x

10.1073/pnas.1114910109

10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02624.x

McCann K, 2012, Food Webs

10.1098/rspb.1997.0172

10.1890/08-0151.1

10.1098/rspb.1995.0148

10.1126/science.1098704

10.1126/science.1158404

Mottajunior JC, 1994, Notes on crab‐eating fox (Dusicyon Thous) seed dispersal and food habits in southeastern Brazil, Mammalia, 58, 156

10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.01864.x

10.1111/j.1095-8339.1994.tb01780.x

10.1111/j.1461-0248.2010.01557.x

10.1515/mamm.1991.55.2.221

10.1038/nature05956

10.1073/pnas.0510355103

10.1038/35084071

10.1007/BF00052209

10.1111/j.1365-2745.2011.01833.x

Song CS, 1999, Scientific Survey of Hubei Houhe Nature Reserve

10.1007/BF02346939

10.1073/pnas.0712282105

10.1098/rspb.2012.0535

10.1098/rspb.2002.2246

10.1016/j.mambio.2011.01.002

10.1098/rstb.2009.0021

10.1890/09-1070.1

10.1038/416389a

10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02386.x

10.1007/s00382-010-0938-4

10.1111/gcb.12206

ZhouYB(2008)The ecology of the masked palm civet (Paguma larvata) in Houhe National Nature Reserve in Hubei province central China: Diet home range activity patterns and seed dispersal. Unpublished PhD thesis Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing.

10.1017/S0266467408004793

10.1644/07-MAMM-A-048R1.1

10.1016/j.foreco.2007.11.018

10.1093/aob/mct096

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Global Change Biology

Tập 19 Số 9

2867-2877

Thông tin tác giả