ArticleScientific reports2016
The signatures of Anthropocene defaunation: cascading effects of the seed dispersal collapse.
Article in Scientific reports, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The island rule explains consistent patterns of body size evolution in terrestrial vertebrates.Nature ecology & evolution · 2021Pooled it
- Species introductions shift seed dispersal potential more than extinctions across 120 island plant-frugivore communities.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Seed dispersal dynamics in northern Iran: a comparative analysis of native large mammals and domestic sheep.BMC ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Legacy of the Lost and Pressure of the Present: Malagasy Plant Seeds Retain Megafauna Dispersal Signatures but Downsize Under Human Pressure.Ecology letters · 2025Article
- Examining the structure of plant-lemur interactions in the face of imperfect knowledge.Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · 2025Article
- Climb forest, climb: diverse disperser communities are key to assist plants tracking climate change on altitudinal gradients.The New phytologist · 2025Article
- Defaunation Increases Clustering and Fine-Scale Spatial Genetic Structure in a Small-Seeded Palm Despite Remaining Small-Bodied Frugivores.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Coevolutionary hotspots favour dispersal and fuel biodiversity in mutualistic landscapes under environmental changes.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Food resource richness increases seed disperser visitations and seed rain richness.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Common seed dispersers contribute most to the persistence of a fleshy-fruited tree.Communications biology · 2023Article
- Novel plant-frugivore network on Mauritius is unlikely to compensate for the extinction of seed dispersers.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Prehistoric pathways to Anthropocene adaptation: Evidence from the Red River Delta, Vietnam.PloS one · 2023Article
- Invasive snake causes massive reduction of all endemic herpetofauna on Gran Canaria.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Tackling unresolved questions in forest ecology: The past and future role of simulation models.Ecology and evolution · 2021Review
- Large-scale reptile extinctions following European colonization of the Guadeloupe Islands.Science advances · 2021Article
- The role of the brown bear Ursus arctos as a legitimate megafaunal seed disperser.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Frugivore-fruit size relationships between palms and mammals reveal past and future defaunation impacts.Nature communications · 2020Article
- Generic Emergence of Modularity in Spatial Networks.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- The long-term restoration of ecosystem complexity.Nature ecology & evolution · 2020Review
- Ant removal distance, but not seed manipulation and deposition site increases the establishment of a myrmecochorous plant.Oecologia · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Anthropogenic activity is driving population declines and extinctions of large-bodied, fruit-eating animals worldwide. Loss of these frugivores is expected to trigger negative cascading effects on plant populations if remnant species fail to replace the seed dispersal services provided by the extinct frugivores. A collapse of seed dispersal may not only affect plant demography (i.e., lack of recruitment), but should also supress gene flow via seed dispersal. Yet little empirical data still exist demonstrating the genetic consequences of defaunation for animal-dispersed plant species. Here, we first document a significant reduction of seed dispersal distances along a gradient of human-driven defaunation, with increasing loss of large- and medium-bodied frugivores. We then show that local plant neighbourhoods have higher genetic similarity, and smaller effective population sizes when large seed dispersers become extinct (i.e., only small frugivores remain) or are even partially downgraded (i.e., medium-sized frugivores providing less efficient seed dispersal). Our results demonstrate that preservation of large frugivores is crucial to maintain functional seed dispersal services and their associated genetic imprints, a central conservation target. Early signals of reduced dispersal distances that accompany the Anthropogenic defaunation forecast multiple, cascading effects on plant populations.
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