Ecological traits of the world’s primates

Galán‐Acedo, Carmen; Arroyo‐Rodríguez, Víctor; Andresen, Ellen; Arasa‐Gisbert, Ricard

doi:10.1038/s41597-019-0059-9

Cited by 52 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…We highlight five OTN activities (several of which are already operational) that demonstrate the power of a decentralized and connected network to increase knowledge transfer in trait science. Trait scientists have made significant achievements in key areas, such as the synthesis of large numbers of observations within taxonomic groups [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] and the development of theory and frameworks to use these data when testing ideas and large-scale empirical studies [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] . However, basic foundations are still lacking to quantify how and why traits vary across organisms.…”

Section: Milestones Toward An Open Approach To Trait-based Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life

et al. 2020

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raits, broadly speaking, are measurable attributes or characteristics of organisms. Traits related to function (for example, leaf size, body mass, tooth size or growth form) are often used to understand how organisms interact with their environment and other species via key vital rates such as survival, development and reproduction 1-5. Trait-based approaches have long been used in systematics and macroevolution to delineate taxa and reconstruct ancestral morphology and function 6-8 and to link candidate genes to phentoypes 9-11. The broad appeal of the trait concept is its ability to facilitate quantitative comparisons of biological form and function. Traits also allow us to mechanistically link organismal responses to abiotic and biotic factors with measurements that are, in principle, relatively easy to capture across large numbers of individuals. For example, appropriately chosen and defined traits can help identify lineages that share similar life-history strategies for a given environmental regime 12,13. Documenting and understanding the diversity and composition of traits in ecosystems directly contributes to our understanding of organismal and ecosystem processes, functionality, productivity and resilience in the face of environmental change 14-19. In light of the multiple applications of trait data to address challenges of global significance (Box 1), a central question remains: How can we most effectively advance the synthesis of trait data within and across disciplines? In recent decades, the collection, compilation and availability of trait data for a variety of organisms has accelerated rapidly. Substantial trait databases now exist for plants 20-23 , reptiles 24,25 , invertebrates 23,26-29 , fish 30,31 , corals 32 , birds 23,33,34 , amphibians 35 , mammals 23,36-38 and fungi 23,39 , and parallel efforts are no doubt underway for other taxa. Though considerable effort has been made to quantify traits for some groups (for example, Fig. 1), substantial work remains. To develop and test theory in biodiversity science, much greater effort is needed to fill in trait data across the Tree of Life by combining and integrating data and trait collection efforts.

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Section: Milestones Toward An Open Approach To Trait-based Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life

et al. 2020

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“…By contrast, many trichromatic primates in Asia (e.g. macaques) feeding on palms have an overall highly frugivorous diet [35], but the colours of palm fruits that they feed on (e.g. species in genera Caryota and Calamus) are both non-conspicuous and conspicuous [25].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We also repeated these simulations for the African grid-based analysis. For the sensitivity analyses, we repeated the SEMs but (i) used the diversity of non-frugivorous trichromats or (ii) dichromat species richness as the response variable; (iii) corrected for total trichromatic/polymorphic richness differences between biogeographic realms (Americas n = 14/113, Africa n = 62/14, Asia n = 82/0); (iv) followed a more conservative classification of frugivory [35]; (v) used conspicuous or non-conspicuous palm fruit species richness (instead of the proportion) to explain primate richness; and (vi) evaluated if results were consistent with another keystone food plant clade, namely figs (Ficus, Moraceae) [33]. We show that our results are robust with respect to royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rspb Proc.…”

Section: (E) Simulations and Sensitivity Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Palm fruit colours are linked to the broad-scale distribution and diversification of primate colour vision systems

et al. 2020

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A long-standing hypothesis in ecology and evolution is that trichromatic colour vision (the ability to distinguish red from green) in frugivorous primates has evolved as an adaptation to detect conspicuous (reddish) fruits. This could provide a competitive advantage over dichromatic frugivores which cannot distinguish reddish colours from a background of green foliage. Here, we test whether the origin, distribution and diversity of trichromatic primates is positively associated with the availability of conspicuous palm fruits, i.e. keystone fruit resources for tropical frugivores. We combine global data of colour vision, distribution and phylogenetic data for more than 400 primate species with fruit colour data for more than 1700 palm species, and reveal that species richness of trichromatic primates increases with the proportion of palm species that have conspicuous fruits, especially in subtropical African forests. By contrast, species richness of trichromats in Asia and the Americas is not positively associated with conspicuous palm fruit colours. Macroevolutionary analyses further indicate rapid and synchronous radiations of trichromats and conspicuous palms on the African mainland starting 10 Ma. These results suggest that the distribution and diversification of African trichromatic primates is strongly linked to the relative availability of conspicuous (versus non-conspicuous) palm fruits, and that interactions between primates and palms are related to the coevolutionary dynamics of primate colour vision systems and palm fruit colours.

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“…For instance 94% of the world’s non‐human primate species are forest dwellers (Galán‐Acedo et al . 2019c). Forest loss is therefore considered a major driver of global biodiversity decline (Fahrig 2003; Newbold et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing optimal human‐modified landscapes for forest biodiversity conservation

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Agriculture and development transform forest ecosystems to human-modified landscapes. Decades of research in ecology have generated myriad concepts for the appropriate management of these landscapes. Yet, these concepts are often contradictory and apply at different spatial scales, making the design of biodiversity-friendly landscapes challenging. Here, we combine concepts with empirical support to design optimal landscape scenarios for forest-dwelling species. The supported concepts indicate that appropriately sized landscapes should contain ≥ 40% forest cover, although higher percentages are likely needed in the tropics. Forest cover should be configured with c. 10% in a very large forest patch, and the remaining 30% in many evenly dispersed smaller patches and semi-natural treed elements (e.g. vegetation corridors). Importantly, the patches should be embedded in a high-quality matrix. The proposed landscape scenarios represent an optimal compromise between delivery of goods and services to humans and preserving most forest wildlife, and can therefore guide forest preservation and restoration strategies.

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Ecological traits of the world’s primates

Cited by 52 publications

References 19 publications

Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life

Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life

Palm fruit colours are linked to the broad-scale distribution and diversification of primate colour vision systems

Designing optimal human‐modified landscapes for forest biodiversity conservation

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