Plant‐Mammal Interactions in Tropical Bolivian Forests with Different Hunting Pressures

By A. Roldán, J. A. Simonetti. 2001

122 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract: We studied plant‐animal interactions and vegetation structure in two geographically close tropical Bolivian forests subjected to different hunting intensities. We hypothesized that reduction of mammals openface> 1 kg in an “intensively hunted forest,” compared with an “occasionally hunted forest,” should correlate with decreased seed predation and seedling trampling, increased seedling survival and density, and decreased tree‐species diversity at the seedling stage in relation to the adult stage. The occasionally hunted forest held 1.7 times as many mammalian species as the intensively hunted forest. As predicted, predation of Astrocaryum murumuru seeds was 34.2% lower in the intensively hunted forest. Similarly, trampling of model seedlings was 5.4 times lower and seedling survival was 1.15 times greater in the intensively hunted forest than that in the occasionally hunted forest. But the intensively hunted forest displayed lower seedling densities and a higher ratio of seedling diversity to tree diversity than did the occasionally hunted forest. Reduction of peccaries from the intensively hunted forest may explain much of the between‐site differences in seed predation, trampling, and seedling survival. Lack of consistent differences in seedling density and diversity could mean that reduced granivory and trampling may be counteracted by reduced seed dispersal. The reduction of mammalian populations may produce a complex mosaic of forest patches with distinct degrees of structural change, depending on the intensity of defaunation.

Subfields: Ecology, Nature and Landscape Conservation, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/81dd75c6b536c5a5435371126df4f0aa6f6c2a6b

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Citations in the corpus

Emptying the Forest: Hunting and the Extirpation of Wildlife from Tropical Nature Reserves (2011, background): “…including seed predation (Roldán and Simonetti 2001, Beckman and Muller-Landau 2007, Dirzo et al. 2007, Wright et al. 2007b), seedling mortality (Roldán and Simonetti 2001, Nuñez-Iturri et al. 2008), nest predation (Posa et al. 2007), and prey availability for large carnivores (O’Brien et al.…”
Range-wide declines of a key Neotropical ecosystem architect, the Near Threatened white-lipped peccary Tayassu pecari (2011, background): “Trampling by large groups of foraging whitelipped peccary can affect seedling densities (Asquith et al., 1997; Roldan & Simonetti, 2001; Keuroghlian & Eaton, 2009).”
Differential Effects of Hunting on Pre‐Dispersal Seed Predation and Primary and Secondary Seed Removal of Two Neotropical Tree Species (2007, background): “Different species in different sites are affected in different ways (Table 1; Dirzo & Miranda 1991, Asquith et al. 1997, Roldan & Simonetti 2001, Wright & Duber 2001).”
Hunting of Mammals Reduces Seed Removal and Dispersal of the Afrotropical Tree Antrocaryon klaineanum (Anacardiaceae) (2007, background): “Regrettably, throughout most of the tropics, anthropogenic hunting of seed-dispersing vertebrates may be disrupting these critical seed dispersal processes (Chapman & Onderdonk 1998, Wright et al. 2000, Roldan & Simonetti 2001, Wright et al. 2007).”
POPULATION REGULATION OF A DOMINANT RAIN FOREST TREE BY A MAJOR SEED PREDATOR (2003, background): “Consequently, these studies fail to provide a clear picture of mammalian impacts on natural populations of trees, or to suggest the effects of local depletion of mammals by hunting on the structure of tropical tree communities (Roldan and Simonetti 2001).”
The Role of Mammals in Creating and Modifying Seedshadows in Tropical Forests and Some Possible Consequences of Their Elimination (2007, background): “1Americas: Roldán & Simonetti 2001, Peres 2000, Lopes & Ferrari 2000, Wright et al. 2000.”
Hunting reduces recruitment of primate-dispersed trees in Amazonian Peru (2008, background): “Extinction of fruit-eating vertebrates threatens important ecosystem processes that maintain long-term forest integrity (Roldan and Simonetti, 2001; Silman et al., 2003; Stoner et al., 2007b).”
Consequences of Seed Dispersal for Plant Recruitment in Tropical Forests: Interactions Within the Seedscape (2013, background): “…& Howe 2007, Nunez-Iturri et al. 2008, Vanthomme et al. 2010, Stevenson 2011) unless the disperser decline was also associated with a decline in seed predators or destructive mammals, in which case seedling diversity did not change or increased (Roldan & Simonetti 2001, Wright et al. 2007a).”
Basin‐Wide Effects of Game Harvest on Vertebrate Population Densities in Amazonian Forests: Implications for Animal‐Mediated Seed Dispersal (2007, background): “…the large-bodied component of tropical forest faunas (Fa & Peres 2001), which contributes a disproportionate fraction of the aggregate vertebrate biomass (Eisenberg 1980, Peres 1999a) and processes that regulate ecosystem dynamics (e.g., Terborgh 1992, Roldán & Simonetti 2001, Silman et al. 2003).”