Generalist and topologically central avian frugivores promote plant invasion unequally across land-bridge islands

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningfagfællebedømt

Seed dispersal by frugivorous birds facilitates plant invasions, but it is poorly known how invasive plants integrate into native communities in fragmented landscapes. We surveyed plant–frugivore interactions, including an invasive plant (Phytolacca americana), on 22 artificial land-bridge islands (fragmented forests) in the Thousand Island Lake, China. Focusing on frugivory interactions that may lead to seed dispersal, we built ecological networks of studied islands both at the local island (community) and at landscape (metacommunity) levels. On islands with P. americana, we found that P. americana impacted local avian frugivory networks more on islands with species-poor plant communities and on isolated islands. Moreover, as P. americana interacted mainly with local core birds (generalists), this indicates reduced seed dispersal of native plants on invaded islands. At the landscape level, P. americana had established strong interactions with generalist birds that largely maintain seed-dispersal functions across islands, as revealed by their topologically central roles both in the regional plant–bird trophic network and in the spatial metanetwork. This indicates that generalist frugivorous birds may have facilitated the dispersal of P. americana across islands, making P. americana well integrated into the plant–frugivore mutualistic metacommunity. Taken together, our study demonstrates that the impact of plant invasion is context-dependent and that generalist native frugivores with high dispersal potential may accelerate plant invasion in fragmented landscapes. These findings highlight the importance of taking the functional roles of animal mutualists and habitat fragmentation into account when managing plant invasions and their impact on native communities.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummere4216
TidsskriftEcology
Vol/bind105
Udgave nummer2
Antal sider14
ISSN0012-9658
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2024

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
We thank Zhansheng Tang at Zhejiang Jiulongshan National Nature Reserve for providing photographs. We also thank Zijuan Cao, Liang Su, and Bai Xiao at Chinese National Geography Intellectual Property Co. Ltd. for assistance in bird drawings, and Mingjian Yu and lab mambers for comments on this research. We are grateful to the Xin'an River Ecological Development Group Corporation, and Thousand Island Lake National Forest Park for permission to conduct this research. This research was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 32030066, no. 32071545, no. 31872210, and no. 31930073), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (no. LD21C030002), the Program for Professor of Special Appointment (Eastern Scholar) at Shanghai Institutes of Higher Learning (no. TP2020016), Baishanzu National Park Scientific Research Program (no. 2021ZDLY03), and Independent Research Fund Denmark (no. 0135‐00333B). Chen Zhu and Wande Li acknowledge the funding of the China Scholarship Council (no. 202106320237 to Chen Zhu, and no. 202206140074 to Wande Li). Thanks to the editors and anonymous reviewers for constructive suggestions that helped improve this manuscript substantially.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Ecological Society of America.

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