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Data and code for: Past and future extinctions shape the body size - fruit size relationship between palms and mammalian frugivores

Lim, Jun Ying1; Svenning, Jens-Christian2; Göldel, Bastian2; Faurby, Søren3; Kissling, W. Daniel4

Published Aug 14, 2020 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6hdr7sqwt

Data files

Aug 14, 2020 version files 41.58 MB

Abstract

The dispersal of seeds by mammalian frugivores influences the structure and composition of plant communities, but most ecosystems have undergone defaunation over thousands of years, a process that continues today. Understanding how past defaunation has affected fruit-frugivore interactions will thus provide insights into how ecosystems may respond to future frugivore loss. By integrating palm and mammalian frugivore trait and occurrence data worldwide, we reveal a global positive relationship between fruit size and body size of frugivore assemblages. Global variation in fruit size is better explained by present-day frugivore assemblages compared to those of the Late Pleistocene (including extinct species), suggesting a substantial ecological and evolutionary reorganization after Pleistocene mammal extinctions. Interestingly, the reverse is true for the Neotropics where some large-fruited palm species may have persisted over thousands of years following extinction of their main seed dispersers. Simulations of frugivore extinction over the next 100 years suggest that changes in body size will require up to a 4% assemblage-level decrease in palm fruit sizes to maintain the current global frugivore body size - fruit size relationship. Absolute changes in assemblage-level means of palm fruit size were on average up to two-fold higher than observed species-level estimates of seed size change following defaunation. Overall, our results suggest that while some large-fruited palms may persist after the loss of their main dispersers, many palms may be unable to keep pace with future defaunation through evolutionary changes in fruit size alone. The burden of the impact of the extinction of seed dispersers will probably be disproportionately borne by large-fruited palms, possibly over thousands of years to come.