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Small Tent-Roosting Bats Promote Dispersal of Large-Seeded Plants in a Neotropical Forest
Authors:Felipe P L Melo  Bernal Rodriguez-Herrera  Robin L Chazdon  Rodrigo A Medellin  Gerardo G Ceballos
Institution:Departamento de Ecología de la Biodiversidad, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apartado Postal 70-275,  C.P. 04510, México DF, México;
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-3043, U.S.A.
Abstract:In Neotropical regions, fruit bats are among the most important components of the remaining fauna in disturbed landscapes. These relatively small-bodied bats are well-known dispersal agents for many small-seeded plant species, but are assumed to play a negligible role in the dispersal of large-seeded plants. We investigated the importance of the small tent-roosting bat Artibeus watsoni for dispersal of large seeds in the Sarapiquí Basin, Costa Rica. We registered at least 43 seed species > 8 mm beneath bat roosts, but a species accumulation curve suggests that this number would increase with further sampling. Samples collected beneath bat feeding roosts had, on average, 10 times more seeds and species than samples collected 5 m away from bat feeding roosts. This difference was generally smaller in small, disturbed forest patches. Species-specific abundance of seeds found beneath bat roosts was positively correlated with abundance of seedlings, suggesting that bat dispersal may influence seedling recruitment. Our study demonstrates a greater role of small frugivorous bats as dispersers of large seeds than previously thought, particularly in regions where populations of large-bodied seed dispersers have been reduced or extirpated by hunting.
Keywords:Costa Rica  defaunation  forest regeneration  frugivorous bats  seed dispersal
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