Publication Date:
2013-06-01
Description:
Local extinctions have cascading effects on ecosystem functions, yet little is known about the potential for the rapid evolutionary change of species in human-modified scenarios. We show that the functional extinction of large-gape seed dispersers in the Brazilian Atlantic forest is associated with the consistent reduction of the seed size of a keystone palm species. Among 22 palm populations, areas deprived of large avian frugivores for several decades present smaller seeds than nondefaunated forests, with negative consequences for palm regeneration. Coalescence and phenotypic selection models indicate that seed size reduction most likely occurred within the past 100 years, associated with human-driven fragmentation. The fast-paced defaunation of large vertebrates is most likely causing unprecedented changes in the evolutionary trajectories and community composition of tropical forests.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Galetti, Mauro -- Guevara, Roger -- Cortes, Marina C -- Fadini, Rodrigo -- Von Matter, Sandro -- Leite, Abraao B -- Labecca, Fabio -- Ribeiro, Thiago -- Carvalho, Carolina S -- Collevatti, Rosane G -- Pires, Mathias M -- Guimaraes, Paulo R Jr -- Brancalion, Pedro H -- Ribeiro, Milton C -- Jordano, Pedro -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2013 May 31;340(6136):1086-90. doi: 10.1126/science.1233774.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Rio Claro, Sao Paulo, Brazil. mgaletti@rc.unesp.br〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23723235" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
*Arecaceae
;
*Biological Evolution
;
*Birds
;
Brazil
;
*Extinction, Biological
;
*Feeding Behavior
;
*Germination
;
Seeds/*anatomy & histology/physiology
;
Trees
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
Permalink
