Species-level drivers of avian centrality within seed-dispersal networks across different levels of organisation

Bird-plant seed-dispersal networks are structural components of ecosystems. The role of bird species in seed-dispersal networks (from less [peripheral] to more connected [central]), determines the interaction patterns and their ecosystem services. These roles may be driven by morphological and functional traits as well as evolutionary, geographical and environmental properties acting at different spatial extents. It is still unknown if such drivers are equally important in determining species centrality at different network levels, from individual local networks to the global meta-network representing interactions across all local networks. Using 308 networks covering five continents and 11 biogeographical regions, we show that at the global meta-network level species' range size was the most important driver of species centrality, with more central species having larger range sizes, which would facilitate the interaction with a higher number of plants and thus the maintenance of seed-dispersal interactions. At the local network level, body mass was the only driver with a significant effect, implying that local factors related to resource availability are more important at this level of network organisation than those related to broad spatial factors such as range sizes. This could also be related to the mismatch between species-level traits, which do not consider intraspecific variation, and the local networks that can depend on such variation. Taken together, our results show that the drivers determining species centrality are relative to the levels of network organisation, suggesting that prediction of species functional roles in seed-dispersal interactions requires combined local and global approaches.

Automated summary

Bird-plant seed-dispersal networks play important roles in ecosystems. The drivers determining species centrality in these networks vary depending on the level of network organization, with range size being the most important driver at the global meta-network level, and body mass being the only significant driver at the local network level. This suggests that prediction of species functional roles in seed-dispersal interactions requires both local and global approaches.