Marta Quitián (Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre Frankfurt (BiK-F), Germany)
Mutualistic interactions, for instance between communities of plants and seed dispersers, influence the structure, stability and functioning of ecological communities. Within communities, species diversity, along with the resulting diversity of functional traits, set the scene for how species might interact. Environmental gradients, such as mountain slopes, influence the diversity and structure of plant-animal interaction networks. At the same time, the impact of human land-use can have profound effects on ecological communities and their interactions along these gradients. Particularly, I explored the animal-mediated seed dispersal function and how it changes along environmental gradients due to changes in elevation and disturbance. My results revealed that plant–frugivore interaction networks at high elevations were more sensitive to forest fragmentation than those at low elevations. Therefore, forest fragmentation might have differential impacts on interaction networks depending on elevation. In addition, I found that frugivorous birds can adapt to alterations in the plant trait community caused by fragmentation by flexible fruit choice. Overall, my work contributes to a better understanding of interaction networks and the functional roles of the interacting species across environmental gradients.