Anthropogenic habitat disturbance is the leading cause of global biodiversity decline. Urbanization in particular is one of the most drastic forms of habitat disturbance, and it is associated with a decrease in both plant and animal diversity. Changes in biodiversity can affect the interactions between the remaining species within an ecosystem, which can, in turn, affect the provision of essential ecosystem services such as seed dispersal and pollination. Despite the wealth of studies examining the effects of urbanization on biodiversity, however, relatively few studies have investigated how urbanization impacts the interactions between species and the ecosystem services provided by them. Seed dispersal is one such ecosystem service which provides an ideal study system for investigating these effects.
The goal of this study was to assess the impact of urbanization on avian seed dispersal networks in southern Appalachia. Specifically, we investigated the impact on species richness, interaction richness, and several network metrics related to ecosystem function (H2, interaction evenness, and weighted nestedness). The study was conducted across two fall – winter observation periods to coincide with the period of peak fruit production, from September – January in 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. Data was collected from 9 study sites during multiple visits via direct observation of bird-fruit interactions, with a total of 635 interactions recorded from 32 bird species on 18 fruiting plant species. Although data analysis is currently ongoing, initial results seem to indicate that there is no significant difference in species richness or interaction richness between natural and urban sites. This has interesting implications, as it suggests that plant-frugivore networks are relatively robust to disturbance caused by urbanization, which is promising for the continued provision of ecosystem services in urban areas.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:asrf-2225 |
| Date | 25 April 2023 |
| Creators | Horton, Jody |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Appalachian Student Research Forum |
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