Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.5
2.9
Journals
Forests
Special Issues
Plant-Animal Interactions in Forests
share announcement

Plant-Animal Interactions in Forests

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 March 2021) | Viewed by 4962

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Alain Hambuckers

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Unit of Research SPHERES, Behavioural Biology, University of Liège, Quai Van Beneden 22, 4020 Liège, Belgium
Interests: seed dispersal; biodiversity; plant species modelling; plant-animal interactions; climate change effects
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Among the key processes sustaining forest ecosystem dynamics, productivity, and distribution are plant–animal interactions: zoochoric seed dispersal, predation and parasitism, pollination, and organic matter turnover. In a rapidly changing world, evidence is building up that these processes are more and more severely altered by surface loss, pollution, poaching, overexploitation, and climate change. Beyond case studies demonstrating perturbations and their mechanisms, the question of how to extrapolate our know-how at regional or larger scales and further in the future is emerging. The combination of advances in various fields of knowledge may help find answers and solutions. Technological observational improvements in sensors, drones, camera traps, and GPS may ease the covering of larger areas with more accuracy, thus providing more detailed information. Biogeographical database and fast methodological surveys based, for instance, on environmental DNA assessment may help constitute validation datasets. The coupling of mathematical models assisted by an increasing computational power may lead to the integration of more processes and finally to a greater reliability of forecasting. The objective of this Special Issue is to provide an overview of transdisciplinary approaches implemented to study the perturbations of plant–animal interactions and their consequences in forest ecosystems.

Dr. Alain Hambuckers
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • mechanistic modelling
  • field survey
  • regional studies
  • seed dispersal
  • predation
  • parasitism
  • pollination
  • ecosystem perturbation

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

24 pages, 4592 KiB  
Article
Seed Shadows of Northern Pigtailed Macaques within a Degraded Forest Fragment, Thailand
by Eva Gazagne, Jean-Luc Pitance, Tommaso Savini, Marie-Claude Huynen, Pascal Poncin, Fany Brotcorne and Alain Hambuckers
Forests 2020, 11(11), 1184; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/f11111184 - 10 Nov 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2158
Abstract
Research Highlights: Frugivores able to disperse large seeds over large distances are indispensable for seedling recruitment, colonization and regeneration of tropical forests. Understanding their effectiveness as seed dispersal agents in degraded habitat is becoming a pressing issue because of escalating anthropogenic disturbance. Although [...] Read more.
Research Highlights: Frugivores able to disperse large seeds over large distances are indispensable for seedling recruitment, colonization and regeneration of tropical forests. Understanding their effectiveness as seed dispersal agents in degraded habitat is becoming a pressing issue because of escalating anthropogenic disturbance. Although of paramount importance in the matter, animal behaviour’s influence on seed shadows (i.e., seed deposition pattern of a plant population) is difficult to evaluate by direct observations. Background and Objectives: We illustrated a modeling approach of seed shadows incorporating field-collected data on a troop of northern pigtailed macaques (Macaca leonina) inhabiting a degraded forest fragment in Thailand, by implementing a mechanistic model of seed deposition with random components. Materials and Methods: We parameterized the mechanistic model of seed deposition with macaque feeding behavior (i.e., consumed fruit species, seed treatments), gut and cheek pouch retention time, location of feeding and sleeping sites, monthly photoperiod and movement patterns based on monthly native fruit availability using Hidden Markov models (HMM). Results: We found that northern pigtailed macaques dispersed at least 5.5% of the seeds into plantation forests, with a majority of medium- to large-seeded species across large distances (mean > 500 m, maximum range of 2300 m), promoting genetic mixing and colonization of plantation forests. Additionally, the macaques produced complementary seed shadows, with a sparse distribution of seeds spat out locally (mean >50 m, maximum range of 870 m) that probably ensures seedling recruitment of the immediate plant populations. Conclusions: Macaques’ large dispersal distance reliability is often underestimated and overlooked; however, their behavioral flexibility places them among the last remaining dispersers of large seeds in disturbed habitats. Our study shows that this taxon is likely to maintain significant seed dispersal services and promote forest regeneration in degraded forest fragments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant-Animal Interactions in Forests)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

14 pages, 2437 KiB  
Article
Seed Removal Rates in Forest Remnants Respond to Forest Loss at the Landscape Scale
by Alain Hambuckers, Franck Trolliet, Astrid Simon, Eliana Cazetta and Larissa Rocha-Santos
Forests 2020, 11(11), 1144; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/f11111144 - 29 Oct 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2225
Abstract
Seed removal is a key component of seed dispersal and may be influenced by both landscape-scale and local attributes, and it has been used as an indicator of the intensity of interactions between ecosystem components. We examined how the seed removal rates, which [...] Read more.
Seed removal is a key component of seed dispersal and may be influenced by both landscape-scale and local attributes, and it has been used as an indicator of the intensity of interactions between ecosystem components. We examined how the seed removal rates, which integrate the activity of seed dispersers and seed predators, vary with landscape-scale forest cover. We collected data under 34 trees belonging to two zoochoric species (Helicostylis tomentosa (Poepp. and Endl.) J. F. Macbr. and Inga vera Willd.) in 17 remnants in the Brazilian Atlantic forest, with different percentages of forest cover. The seed removal rate was estimated using a fast method based on the abundance of intact fruits and fruit scraps on the ground. The amount of forest cover affected the rate of seed removal in a humpbacked shape, with a maximum seed removal rate at intermediate forest cover. Seed removal rates must be related to the amount of food resources offered and diversity of dispersers and predators in the region. In landscapes with intermediate forest amount, there is a better balance between supply and demand for fruits, leading to a higher seed removal rate than more deforested or forested landscape. Our results also show that local factors, such as crop size and canopy surface, together with forest cover amount, are also important to the removal rate, depending on the species. In addition, our results showed that plant–animal interactions are occurring in all fragments, but the health status of these forests is similar to disturbed forests, even in sites immersed in forested landscapes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant-Animal Interactions in Forests)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-2
Back to TopTop