University of Marburg, Department of Biology, Conservation Ecology, Marburg, Germany.
University of Marburg, Department of Biology, Animal Ecology, Marburg, Germany.
Commun Biol. 2023 Mar 27;6(1):330. doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-04647-y.
Mutualistic interactions are by definition beneficial for each contributing partner. However, it is insufficiently understood how mutualistic interactions influence partners throughout their lives. Here, we used animal species-explicit, microhabitat-structured integral projection models to quantify the effect of seed dispersal by 20 animal species on the full life cycle of the tree Frangula alnus in Białowieża Forest, Eastern Poland. Our analysis showed that animal seed dispersal increased population growth by 2.5%. The effectiveness of animals as seed dispersers was strongly related to the interaction frequency but not the quality of seed dispersal. Consequently, the projected population decline due to simulated species extinction was driven by the loss of common rather than rare mutualist species. Our results support the notion that frequently interacting mutualists contribute most to the persistence of the populations of their partners, underscoring the role of common species for ecosystem functioning and nature conservation.
互利共生关系从定义上讲对每个参与的伙伴都是有益的。然而，人们对互利共生关系如何影响伙伴的整个生命周期还了解不足。在这里，我们使用特定于动物物种、微生境结构的积分预测模型，来量化 20 种动物物种的种子传播对波兰东部比亚沃维耶扎森林中阿尔nus 树的整个生命周期的影响。我们的分析表明，动物的种子传播使种群增长率提高了 2.5%。动物作为种子传播者的有效性与相互作用频率密切相关，而与种子传播质量无关。因此，由于模拟物种灭绝而导致的预测种群下降是由常见而非稀有共生物种的丧失驱动的。我们的研究结果支持了这样一种观点，即经常相互作用的共生体对其伙伴种群的持续存在贡献最大，这突显了常见物种在生态系统功能和自然保护中的作用。
