Abstract
Birds, like most animals, are expected to adjust their foraging activity in response to biotic and abiotic variations to optimize energy intake and reduce costs associated with finding and ingesting food. This may lead to temporal variation in the exploitation of food resources, which has been investigated for birds of different feeding guilds but remains poorly understood for frugivorous species. Here, we tested whether the frugivory activity of birds on Schinus terebinthifolia trees varies throughout the day during the austral autumn and winter and whether variation is related to weather conditions. For two consecutive years, we quantified frugivory events for 304 h in 19 individuals of S. terebinthifolia observed across four time periods throughout the day. We found that the number of frugivory events was similar irrespective of the time period, both for the entire assemblage (all species pooled together) and for the most common species analyzed individually. We additionally found that frugivory activity was slightly influenced by temperature and wind. The lack of any effect of daytime period on fruit consumption may relate to the high and prolonged levels of fruit availability in S. terebinthifolia and the short photoperiod of the autumn–winter, which favors frequent feeding throughout the day. Such constant removal of fruits by a diverse assemblage of generalist fruit consumers probably enhances seed dispersal and may have important implications for the population dynamics of this abundant plant. Our results also demonstrate that data on avian frugivory in temperate, open-vegetation environments can be quantified throughout the entire daytime during the cold season without temporal bias, which has important methodological implications for studies on bird–plant interactions.
Zusammenfassung
Die Menge an fruchtfressenden Vögeln an einer häufigen Baumart bleibt über den Tag hinweg konstant und wird in geringem Maße durch Wetterkonditionen beeinflusst.
Vögel sollten wie die meisten Tiere ihre Nahrungssuche an biotische und abiotische Veränderungen anpassen, um ihre Energieaufnahme zu optimieren und die mit der Nahrungssuche und -aufnahme verbundenen Kosten zu reduzieren. Dies könnte zu zeitlichen Schwankungen in der Nutzung der Nahrungsressourcen führen, was bereits bei Vögeln unterschiedlicher Nahrungsgilden untersucht wurde, jedoch für frugivore Arten weiterhin kaum erforscht ist. Wir untersuchten, ob die Aktivität fruchtfressender Vögel auf Brasilianischen Pfefferbäumen Schinus terebinthifolia im Verlaufe des Tages während des südlichen Herbstes und Winters variiert und ob diese Variation im Zusammenhang mit den Wetterbedingungen steht. In zwei aufeinanderfolgenden Jahren quantifizierten wir insgesamt 304 Stunden lang das Auftreten von Frugivorie auf 19 verschiedenen Bäumen der Art S. terebinthifolia, welche jeweils innerhalb von vier Zeitabschnitten über den Tag hinweg untersucht wurden. Wir fanden heraus, dass unabhängig vom Zeitabschnitt die Vorkommenshäufigkeit von Frugivorie sowohl für die gesamte Vogelgemeinschaft (alle Arten zusammengefasst), als auch für die häufigste Art individuell betrachtet gleichblieb. Weiterhin stellten wir fest, dass die Aktivität fruchtfressender Vögel in geringem Maße durch Temperatur und Wind beeinflusst wurde. Das Fehlen jeglicher Auswirkungen des Tageszeitraums auf den Fruchtverzehr könnte mit der hohen und anhaltenden Verfügbarkeit der Früchte an S. terebinthifolia und der kurzen Photoperiode im Herbst und Winter zusammenhängen, was eine regelmäßige Nahrungsaufnahme über den Tag hinweg begünstigt. Eine solche konstante Entnahme von Früchten durch eine vielfältige Gemeinschaft an fruchtfressenden Generalisten verbessert vermutlich die Samenausbreitung und hat möglicherweise wichtige Auswirkungen auf die Populationsdynamik dieser häufigen Pflanzenart. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen weiterhin, dass Daten zur Frugivorie bei Vögeln in gemäßigten Breiten mit offener Vegetation während der kalten Jahreszeiten über den gesamten Tag hinweg ohne eine zeitliche Beeinflussung quantifiziert werden können. Dies hat wichtige methodische Auswirkungen auf Studien über Interaktionen zwischen Vogel und Pflanze.
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Acknowledgements
We thank an anonymous reviewer for suggestions that improved the manuscript. J. Gleditsch, C. Downes and two anonymous contributors reviewed a previous version of the manuscript. J. Zanolla kindly provided lodging. G. C. Alves, chief of the Estação Experimental Terras Baixas—EMBRAPA Clima Temperado, allowed access to areas of the EMBRAPA and facilitated fieldwork. We also thank C. R. Júnior from the Laboratório de Agrometeorologia—EMBRAPA Clima Temperado for providing access to weather variables, and S. Lorandi for assistance during fieldwork. Funding was provided by the Programa de Apoio à Pós-Graduação (PROAP) of CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior). Additional funding to JVB was provided by CERL-ERDC. All procedures carried out during this study comply with current Brazilian laws.
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Vissoto, M., Vizentin-Bugoni, J., Bonnet, O.J.F. et al. Avian frugivory rates at an abundant tree species are constant throughout the day and slightly influenced by weather conditions. J Ornithol 160, 655–663 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-019-01663-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-019-01663-w