The ecological footprint of Acca sellowiana domestication maintains the residual vertebrate diversity in threatened highlands of Atlantic Forest

Abstract

Past and contemporary human actions are causing numerous changes in patterns and processes at various ecosystem scales and trophic levels, including unintended downstream changes, such as species interactions. In its native range Acca sellowiana (Feijoa) combines some characteristics of human interactions: incipient domestication, restricted to subtropical Atlantic Forest highlands, associated with the threatened conifer Araucaria angustifolia (Araucaria), within a domesticated landscape with anthropogenic forest patches, and provides fruit at a time of resource shortage (Araucaria seeds—pinhão). We quantify the trophic relationships between Feijoa and vertebrates, and evaluate the influences on interactions caused by environmental variations, Feijoa domestication evidences, spatial distance and fruit availability. In four sites within protected areas, we selected 28 focal individuals of Feijoa (seven/site) and collected three temporal replicas between 2015 and 2016, when we measured productivity and frugivory via 45-second videos taken with camera traps. Using ecological network, rarefaction curves and variation partitioning analyses, we evaluate the frugivory network topology, the spatiotemporal structure of communities in relation to fruit availability and the influence of predictive variables on frugivory. We found a large spatiotemporal variation in productivity of Feijoa and that 20 species consumed Feijoa fruits, with a species degree of 2.8 (±5.7) and average Feijoa degree of 14.4 (±10.1), in a modular network with intermediary connectance. Rarefaction curves showed that richness and the independent records are congruent with the fruit amount. Variation partitioning showed that, for the focal individuals, canopy area, green coverage, patch size and distance to water influenced frugivory, and the Feijoa domestication influenced significantly the mammalian frugivory. Feijoa is an important resource that provides food during the time of year when Pinhão is absent, and attracts frugivores, maintain the residual diversity of vertebrates contributing to the structure of communities in highlands. Our insights allowed us to evaluate the magnitude of the interactions between vertebrates and an incipient domesticated tree, in a cultural landscape and highly threatened environment, under a basal foodweb approach with implications for bottom-up and top-down forces. The results contribute to understanding animal-plant relationships, including concepts that can be replicated for other sessile prey and mobile predators in any region or habitat under different gradients of management. Thus, this work shows how human actions can change not only patterns of distribution and abundance but also the diversity and direction of interspecific interactions among species.

Disentangling Domestication from Food Production Systems in the Neotropics

“…All the practices already mentioned are used to propagate and care for useful plants in a new agroecology. Today this generally starts as a horticultural plot and turns into an agroforestry plot, often seen as mimicking natural ecosystems, especially as local species volunteer and are tolerated in the agroecology [75].…”

Seed dispersal by ungulates in the point calimere wildlife sanctuary: A scientific and perspective analysis

“…In cause of control Zizypus seed had no germination because indigenous/native seeds are easily digested in rumen cattle, it compared with exotic seeds which are smaller and likely damaged in cattle remnant ( Wisdom, 2005 ). In addition to that the previous recode support to us; the larger domestic/native ungulates have the potential to disperse the larger quantities of exotic seeds which are more responsible for threatening flora is protected and unprotected zones ( Bogoni et al, 2018 ). This study noticed that there were significant variations between the rate of seedling growth of plant species and among the ungulate pellets ( Table 2 ; P < 0.001).…”

Disrupting a socioecological system: how Traditional Ecological Knowledge could be the key to preserve Araucaria Forest in Brazil under climate change?

“…Currently, human groups (i.e. indigenous people and local smallholders) still rely on Araucaria Forest resources, especially due to the use and management of pinhão and other plant species, such as Ilex paraguariensis, known as yerba-mate, a tea-like beverage (Reis et al 2014), and Acca sellowiana, known as goiabeira-serrana (Bogoni et al 2018).…”