Frugivory, Movement and Seed Dispersal
We seek to provide new insights to long-lasting questions regarding plant-frugivore interactions, specifically exploring the impacts of frugivores on plant -- from the individual level to population and community levels, how different frugivore species within a guild may vary in their seed dispersal service, and how frugivore loss affect ecosystem integrity and functioning. These questions have important conceptual implications for understanding the dynamics and functioning of biodiverse plant communities, given that seed dispersal determines ecological and evolutionary patterns of plant diversity. Such knowledge can also help in predicting which species might be most sensitive and what are the ecosystem responses to frugivore loss. One of the critical steps in defining the multi-faceted aspects of frugivore-plant interactions is to characterize the movement and foraging patterns of the frugivores. We currently address this by focusing on primates frugivores and their food plants in tropical systems in Madagascar and Mexico. We are also interested in the potential roles of rodents in filling functional gap in the absence of primary seed dispersers, by influencing seed fate.