ArticleScientific reports2016
Defaunation leads to microevolutionary changes in a tropical palm.
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 20 papers.
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20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Frugivore richness poorly predicts seed dispersal effectiveness under climate change.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Genomic Differentiation, Diversity, and Genetic Structuring ofEcology and evolution · 2026Article
- Fossil evidence of proboscidean frugivory and its lasting impact on South American ecosystems.Nature ecology & evolution · 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
- Impact of insular landscape features on the population genetics of a threatened climbing palm,PeerJ · 2025Article
- Defaunation Increases Clustering and Fine-Scale Spatial Genetic Structure in a Small-Seeded Palm Despite Remaining Small-Bodied Frugivores.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Tropical forest loss and geographic location drive the functional genomic diversity of an endangered palm tree.Evolutionary applications · 2023Article
- Potential cultivation areas of Euterpe edulis (Martius) for rainforest recovery, repopulation and açai production in Santa Catarina, Brazil.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Patterns of genetic diversity and structure of a threatened palm species (Euterpe edulis Arecaceae) from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.Heredity · 2022Article
- Genetic Diversity and Population Structure ofPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Plastid genome evolution in Amazonian açaí palm (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) and Atlantic forest açaí palm (Euterpe edulis Mart.).Plant molecular biology · 2021Article
- Environmental niche and functional role similarity between invasive and native palms in the Atlantic Forest.Biological invasions · 2021Article
- Genetic structure among morphotypes of the endangered Brazilian palmEcology and evolution · 2020Article
- Defaunation precipitates the extinction of evolutionarily distinct interactions in the Anthropocene.Science advances · 2019Article
- Rapid changes in seed dispersal traits may modify plant responses to global change.AoB PLANTS · 2019Review
- To adapt or go extinct? The fate of megafaunal palm fruits under past global change.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
- Wish you were here: How defaunated is the Atlantic Forest biome of its medium- to large-bodied mammal fauna?PloS one · 2018Article
- Evolutionary cascades induced by large frugivores.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2017Article
- Synergistic effects of seed disperser and predator loss on recruitment success and long-term consequences for carbon stocks in tropical rainforests.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Frugivore-Mediated Selection in A Habitat Transformation Scenario.Scientific reports · 2017Article
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4 authors.
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Abstract
Many large species have declined worldwide due to habitat fragmentation and poaching. The defaunation of large frugivores and the consequent reductions of seed dispersal services may have immediate effects on plant demography. Yet, the lasting effects of frugivore defaunation on microevolutionary processes of the plants they disperse remain understudied. We tested if the loss of large seed dispersers can lead to microevolutionary changes of a tropical palm. We show that frugivore defaunation is the main driver of changes in allelic frequency among populations. Turnover of alleles accounted for 100% of dissimilarity in allelic frequencies of individuals between defaunated and non-defaunated forests; and individuals from defaunated sites are 1.5 times more similar genetically than those found in pristine sites. Given that sizeable fractions of the palm fruit crops remain undispersed in defaunated sites due to lack of large-bodied frugivores, this distinct pattern of gene pool composition of early recruits may reveal strong dispersal limitation for specific genotypes, or collapses of gene flow between fragmented areas, or both. Because most of tropical tree species rely on seed dispersal by vertebrates, our results show that defaunation has a lasting effect on microevolutionary processes, with potential consequences for persistence under scenarios of environmental change.
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