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A global systematic review of frugivorous animal tracking studies and the estimation of seed dispersal distances
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  • Adam Fell,
  • Daisy Dent,
  • Alexander Duthie,
  • Thiago Silva
Adam Fell
University of Stirling

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Daisy Dent
ETH Zurich
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Alexander Duthie
University of Stirling
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Thiago Silva
University of Stirling Division of Biological and Environmental Sciences
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Abstract

Seed dispersal is one of the most important ecosystem services globally. It shapes plant populations, enhances forest succession, and has multiple, indirect benefits for humans, yet it is one of the most threatened processes in plant regeneration, worldwide. The restricted movement of local frugivores, through habitat fragmentation, is one of the main threats to seed dispersal. These restrictions alter the behaviour associated with movements before, during and after interacting with fruits and seeds. Consequently, there have been recent calls for animal movement and behaviour to be better integrated with seed dispersal studies to enable researchers to fully understand the processes that determine seed rain. To assess the current use of animal tracking in frugivory studies and to provide a baseline for future studies, we provide a comprehensive review and synthesis on the existing primary literature of global tracking studies that monitor movement of frugivorous animals. Specifically, we identify studies that estimate dispersal distances and how they vary with morphological and environmental traits. We show that over the last two decades there has been a large increase in frugivore tracking studies that determine seed dispersal distances. However, gaps across taxa and geographic distribution still exist. Furthermore, we found that certain morphological and environmental traits can be used to predict seed dispersal distances. We demonstrate that an increase in body mass significantly increases the estimated seed dispersal mean and maximum distances, as does species flight ability. Our results also suggest that protected areas have a positive effect on mean seed dispersal distances when compared to unprotected areas. We anticipate that this review act as a reference for future frugivore tracking studies to build upon, specifically to understand the drivers of movement, and to interpret how seed dispersal and other ecosystem services will be impacted by human disturbance and land use changes.
09 Jun 2023Submitted to Ecology and Evolution
13 Jun 2023Submission Checks Completed
13 Jun 2023Assigned to Editor
16 Jun 2023Reviewer(s) Assigned
13 Jul 2023Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
19 Jul 2023Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
08 Sep 20231st Revision Received
09 Sep 2023Submission Checks Completed
09 Sep 2023Assigned to Editor
09 Sep 2023Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
12 Sep 2023Reviewer(s) Assigned
20 Sep 2023Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
25 Sep 20232nd Revision Received
26 Sep 2023Assigned to Editor
26 Sep 2023Submission Checks Completed
26 Sep 2023Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
08 Oct 2023Editorial Decision: Accept