Category: Lemur

New paper: Individual-based frugivore-plant network

9/15/2021

We have a new paper in Oikos examining how space and variation between individual plants affect movement and visitation by frugivores foraging on individual fruiting plants.

Graphical abstract from Tonos et al. Oikos 2021

New paper: Seed dispersal limitation in forest edge habitats

9/15/2021

We have a new paper in the Frontiers of Ecology and Evolution investigating how differences between frugivore communities at the forest edge and interior habitats of a diverse tropical rainforest relate to patterns of animal-mediated seed dispersal and early seedling recruitment.

Main findings:

Lemur communities across the forest edge-interior gradient in this system showed the highest species richness and variability in body sizes at intermediate distances; the community of birds showed the opposite pattern for species richness.
Three large-bodied frugivores, known to be effective dispersers of large seeds, tended to avoid the forest edge.
The forest edges received a lower rate of animal-mediated seed dispersal compared to the interior habitats.
The seeds that were actively dispersed by animals in forest edge habitats were smaller in size than seeds dispersed in the forest interior. This pattern was found despite a similarity in seed size of seasonally fruiting adult trees and shrubs between the two habitats.
Despite these differences in dispersal patterns, we did not observe any differences in the rates of seedling recruitment or seed-size distribution of successful recruit species.

Forest edge in Ihofa Forest, Madagascar. Photo by O. Razafindratsima

New paper: Mouse lemur microhabitat use

8/4/2021

We have a new paper in the International Journal of Primatology investigating several aspects of the microhabitat structure that the rufous mouse lemur (Microcebus rufus) might prefer and examining how this structural preference varies across a heterogeneous landscape of forests with different disturbance levels.

A mouse lemur in the rainforest of Ranomafana National Park. Picture courtesy of Vero Ramananjato.

New paper: Individual-based frugivore-plant network

New paper: Seed dispersal limitation in forest edge habitats

New paper: Mouse lemur microhabitat use

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