期刊
MAMMALIAN BIOLOGY
卷 77, 期 1, 页码 22-31出版社
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1016/j.mambio.2011.06.002
关键词
Sturnira; Artibeus; Carollia; Diet selection; Fruit morphology
类别
资金
- CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas, Argentina) [PIP 112-200801-01025]
- PICT [13280]
Phyllostomid bats are prominent components of mammalian assemblages in the Neotropics. With many species specialized in frugivory, phyllostomids represent major partners of fleshy-fruited plants in the mutualism of seed dispersal. Here we present dietary data from two subtropical rainforests of Argentina, where fruit diversity is low and thus offer unique opportunities to test hypotheses of diet selection originally proposed for species-rich tropical assemblages. Particularly, we tested whether frugivorous phyllostomids exhibit pronounced dietary specialization in core plant taxa where fruit offer is greatly reduced as compared to tropical rainforests. We analyzed dietary overlap and niche breadth of subtropical frugivorous bats on the basis of >1000 dietary records plus >500 samples from a previous study in the region. We show that in the subtropics, frugivores from different genera remain faithful to their respective core plant taxa with few exceptions, rather than shifting toward alternative fruit resources available in the study sites. This supports predictions of specialization, which is confirmed to have a deep historical origin. The response of phyllostomid ense.mbles to restricted fruit diversity is at the level of species composition: absence of species for which preferred fruits do not occur in the sites. Taken together, these data lend strong support to hypotheses that explain coexistence of frugivorous phyllostomids on the basis of dietary specialization on core plant taxa with chiropterochorous fruits. (C) 2011 Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Saugetierkunde. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
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