Banca de DEFESA: VICTOR DE PAIVA MOREIRA

Uma banca de DEFESA de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : VICTOR DE PAIVA MOREIRA
DATE: 08/08/2024
TIME: 08:00
LOCAL: Google Meet
TITLE:

Frugivory in Myrtaceae in the Americas

KEY WORDS:

Interaction network; Data paper; Myrteae; Dispersion

PAGES: 114
BIG AREA: Ciências Biológicas
AREA: Ecologia
SUMMARY:

Myrtaceae is one of the richest families in terms of species and plays a crucial role in the ecology of tropical regions, especially in the Americas, where it is represented by the tribe Myrteae. This group has a wide diversity of fleshy fruits that are used as resources by fauna while relies on the role of frugivores for seed dispersal. This plant animal interaction affects the evolutionary success of both lineages and is expected the selection of fruits by frugivores to explain the high species diversity of this family. This dissertation is divided into two chapters. The first chapter aimed to review the consumption of the neotropical Myrtaceae fruits by animals through a systematic literature search through the databases Web of Science, Scopus, and SciELO, and additional references cited in these studies. A total of 324 sources of information were found. The researches were conducted from Mexico to the southern part of the American continent, covering 18 countries, with a high concentration of studies in Brazil (188 studies out of 324 found; 58%). A total of 1858 frugivory interactions were recorded, involving 200 species of the tribe Myrteae and 292 species of frugivores (152 bird species, 106 mammal species, 17 fish species, 8 ant species, 8 reptile species, and 1 crustacean species). Of this total, 722 interactions were unique records between known species (i.e., excluding duplicate records found in different studies and records where one or both species involved were undetermined at the specific level). About 40% of the studies recorded interactions with plant species having some level of taxonomic uncertainty, either at the species or genus level of Myrtaceae. The interactions occurred with at least 19 genera of Myrteae, with Eugenia being the most studied, appearing in 165 studies (51% of the total). This genus also had the most species studied, at least 65, and the most interactions recorded (541 in total, with 371 involving known animal species). In the second chapter, this initial database was filtered for interactions where the taxonomy of the plant and animal were known to the specific level and only for vertebrates (since interactions with ants and crustaceans are exceptions in the dispersal patterns of Myrtaceae), in order to characterize the associations between the traits of fruits and seeds and their frugivores, testing the hypothesis of seed dispersal syndrome and its impact on the speciation of Myrteae. From 225 studies, we found 1019 interactions (697 unique) between 254 species of vertebrates and 163 species of Myrteae. Primates consumed 79 species of Myrtaceae (127 unique interactions) while birds consumed 42 species (221 unique interactions), other vertebrates were less important in the dispersal of the group. The vast majority of Myrtaceae species presented small, black fruits with a single seed that were dispersed by all visiting groups, but especially by birds. While the second most important group of fruits were the large yellow fruits with many seeds, characteristic of the genera Psidium and Campomanesia, which were most visited by primates. Other dispersal syndromes are unclear and there is a large overlap in the characteristics of fruits and seeds that are consumed by birds and mammals. Even when we subdivide mammals according to their orders, dispersal syndromes are not evident in Myrteae. In addition, we found a sampling bias in frugivory studies, with a high concentration of data for the Paraná Domain region and for this reason, to remove a possible biogeographic effect, network metrics were calculated only for this Domain (105 species of Myrtaceae, 139 species of animals, 568 interactions, 422 unique interactions). The network showed modularity, but without an evident pattern associated with the functional characteristics of the fruits or the animals that consume them. Few modules presented notable characteristics, such as the absence of small fruits in module 1, exclusivity of mammals in module 5 and predominance of birds and small fruits in modules 8 and 9, probably because of many low-frequency interactions obscuring the identification of more general patterns. Many important interactions occurred between primates, some of which behaved as connector species and module centers, including endangered species such as Brachyteles arachnoides, Leontopithecus caissara and L. chrysopygus. This serves as a warning for the maintenance of the natural regeneration of the forests of this province. In a scenario of high threats, these species would be the first to disappear, compromising the conservation of these environments. We also found a trend, although not significant, that lineages producing large and yellow fruits have lower speciation rates, while lineages producing small and black fruits, which are consumed by all frugivore groups, have more varied speciation rates, but are the only ones with higher speciation rates within the tribe Myrteae. The database provides an advance in the knowledge of frugivory interactions in Myrteae in the Americas and identifies knowledge gaps, suggesting directions for future studies. Furthermore, the analysis of the interaction network from a macroevolutionary perspective provided clues to the understanding of how fruit choice by frugivores may have shaped the evolution and patterns of diversification in plants.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Externa à Instituição - ELIANA GRESSLER
Interna - 1914239 - MIRIAM PLAZA PINTO
Presidente - 3058386 - VANESSA GRAZIELE STAGGEMEIER