Bushmeat Hunting Alters Recruitment of Large‐seeded Plant Species in Central Africa

Vanthomme, Hadrien; Bellé, Boris; Forget, Pierre‐Michel

doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2010.00630.x

Cited by 116 publications

(125 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…S4) (20, 23), suggesting that overhunting-induced reductions in seedling recruitment are disproportionately stronger in heavy-wooded tree species. These patterns are corroborated by studies in Mesoamerica (11,15), Africa (13,14,43,44), and southern Asia (12), showing that severe depletion of large frugivores negatively affects the recruitment, relative abundance, and population growth rate of large-seeded trees. However, our simulations may conservatively exclude some very large-seeded species (typically with seed lengths >45 mm) from our list of candidate taxa projected to undergo severe dispersal limitation, even though these species are often associated with high wood density (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Dispersal limitation induces long-term biomass collapse in overhunted Amazonian forests

Peres

Emilio

Schietti

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

324

335

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Tropical forests are the global cornerstone of biological diversity, and store 55% of the forest carbon stock globally, yet sustained provisioning of these forest ecosystem services may be threatened by hunting-induced extinctions of plant-animal mutualisms that maintain long-term forest dynamics. Large-bodied Atelinae primates and tapirs in particular offer nonredundant seed-dispersal services for many large-seeded Neotropical tree species, which on average have higher wood density than smaller-seeded and winddispersed trees. We used field data and models to project the spatial impact of hunting on large primates by ∼1 million rural households throughout the Brazilian Amazon. We then used a unique baseline dataset on 2,345 1-ha tree plots arrayed across the Brazilian Amazon to model changes in aboveground forest biomass under different scenarios of hunting-induced large-bodied frugivore extirpation. We project that defaunation of the most harvest-sensitive species will lead to losses in aboveground biomass of between 2.5-5.8% on average, with some losses as high as 26.5-37.8%. These findings highlight an urgent need to manage the sustainability of game hunting in both protected and unprotected tropical forests, and place full biodiversity integrity, including populations of large frugivorous vertebrates, firmly in the agenda of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) programs. T ropical forests worldwide store >460 billion tons of carbonover half of the total atmospheric storage (1)-and tropical forest conversion and degradation account for as much as 20% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (2). Tropical forests are also the most species-rich ecosystems on Earth, yet the role of species interactions in stabilizing tropical forest dynamics and maintaining the flow of natural ecosystem services, including long-term forest carbon pools, remains poorly understood. Over 80-96% of all woody plant species in tropical forests produce vertebrate-dispersed fleshy fruits (3, 4), yet many large-bodied frugivore populations in tropical forest regions have already been severely overhunted (5), resulting in functionally "empty" or "half-empty" forests with subsequent disruptions in seed dispersal mutualisms (6). Indeed, the total forest area degraded by unsustainable hunting in the largest remaining tropical forest regions may exceed the combined extent of deforestation, selective logging, and wildfires (7,8). Even formally decreed forest reserves in remote areas have succumbed to population declines and local extinctions of large vertebrates (9, 10), yet the consequences of this pervasive defaunation process to the persistence of tropical forest ecosystem services remains poorly explored.Overhunting can amplify dispersal limitation in many largeseeded plant species relying primarily or exclusively on harvestsensitive large-bodied frugivores. The causal mechanisms through which hunting leads to altered phytodemographics-recruitment bottlenecks resulting from replacement of seedlings f...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Dispersal limitation induces long-term biomass collapse in overhunted Amazonian forests

Peres

Emilio

Schietti

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

324

335

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“…In the hunted sites, primate-dispersed seeds are likely aggregated below fruiting trees [27], where they can be more profitably exploited by seed predators, than if they were more evenly dispersed on the forest floor [55,56]. This could cause large seed predators to switch towards primate-dispersed seeds away from abiotically dispersed seeds [57,58], which are often smaller [32]. This would then be a case of apparent competition [59] among seeds of different sizes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At present, such evidence is rare in African forests (but see [20,32,33]). Given the widespread occurrence of the bushmeat harvest and habitat loss and their effects on tropical forest biodiversity [4], quantifying the impact of the decline of large frugivores on community-wide regeneration in structurally intact forests is important.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bushmeat hunting changes regeneration of African rainforests

et al. 2013

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To assess ecological consequences of bushmeat hunting in African lowland rainforests, we compared paired sites, with high and low hunting pressure, in three areas of southeastern Nigeria. In hunted sites, populations of important seed dispersers-both small and large primates (including the Cross River gorilla, Gorilla gorilla diehli)-were drastically reduced. Large rodents were more abundant in hunted sites, even though they are hunted. Hunted and protected sites had similar mature tree communities dominated by primate-dispersed species. In protected sites, seedling communities were similar in composition to the mature trees, but in hunted sites species with other dispersal modes dominated among seedlings. Seedlings emerging 1 year after clearing of all vegetation in experimental plots showed a similar pattern to the standing seedlings. This study thus verifies the transforming effects of bushmeat hunting on plant communities of tropical forests and is one of the first studies to do so for the African continent.

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“…For instance, largeseeded plant species can grow and survive in shaded conditions, whereas small-seeded species usually depend on a high light availability for establishment (Rees et al, 2001). Given the trait matching between plants and animals in mutualistic networks, it is expected that a diverse animal community will be able to disperse seeds with a wide range of plant traits, such as seed size, whereas the range of dispersed seeds should be reduced in communities of low animal diversity (Vanthomme et al, 2010). Top-down effects of animals on seedlings are expected to be most pronounced if different animal species provide complementary contributions to seed dispersal Schleuning et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic and Functional Diversity of Fleshy-Fruited Plants Are Positively Associated with Seedling Diversity in a Tropical Montane Forest

et al. 2017

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Mutualistic interactions between plants and animals can affect both plant and animal communities, and potentially leave imprints on plant demography. Yet, no study has simultaneously tested how trait variation in plant resources shapes the diversity of animal consumers, and how these interactions influence seedling recruitment. Here, we analyzed whether (i) phylogenetic diversity and functional diversity of fruiting plants were correlated with the corresponding diversity of frugivorous birds, and (ii) whether phylogenetic diversity and functional identity of plant and bird communities influenced the corresponding diversity and identity of seedling communities. We recorded mutualistic interactions between fleshy-fruited plants and frugivorous birds and seedling communities in 10 plots along an elevational gradient in the Colombian Andes. We built a phylogeny for plants/seedlings and birds and measured relevant morphological plant and bird traits that influence plant-bird interactions and seedling recruitment. We found that phylogenetic diversity and functional diversity of frugivorous birds were positively associated with the corresponding diversities of fruiting plants, consistent with a bottom-up effect of plants on birds. Moreover, the phylogenetic diversity of seedlings was related to the phylogenetic diversity of plants, but was unrelated to the phylogenetic diversity of frugivorous birds, suggesting that top-down effects of animals on seedlings were weak. Mean seed mass of seedling communities was positively associated with the mean fruit mass of plants, but was not associated with the mean avian body mass in the frugivore communities. Our study shows that variation in the traits of fleshyfruited plants was associated with the diversity of frugivorous birds and affected the future trajectory of seedling recruitment, whereas the morphological traits of animal seed dispersers were unrelated to the phylogenetic and functional structure of seedling communities. These findings suggest that bottom-up effects are more important than top-down effects for seed-dispersal interactions and seedling recruitment in diverse tropical communities.

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Bushmeat Hunting Alters Recruitment of Large‐seeded Plant Species in Central Africa

Cited by 116 publications

References 30 publications

Dispersal limitation induces long-term biomass collapse in overhunted Amazonian forests

Dispersal limitation induces long-term biomass collapse in overhunted Amazonian forests

Bushmeat hunting changes regeneration of African rainforests

Phylogenetic and Functional Diversity of Fleshy-Fruited Plants Are Positively Associated with Seedling Diversity in a Tropical Montane Forest

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