Birds’ taste for rare fruit keeps plants alive

Newsbeat

Ecologists haven’t been sure how—outside of human influences—rare plant species persist instead of dwindling away to extinction. New research demonstrates that the answer includes fruit-eating birds. “We show that fruit-eating birds, just by their food-gathering behavior, help to structure the diversity of forests,” says Tomás Carlo, associate professor of biology at Penn State. “This is important because higher plant diversity is associated with increased provision of ecosystem services, such as nutrient cycling and the production of food and water.” According to Carlo, when birds eat fruits, they help plants to reproduce by spreading their seeds around. “A couple years ago, I found some rare seeds in one of my seed traps in Puerto Rico, and I said to myself, ‘Why are these birds eating this?” Carlo says. “This is improbable. These birds are surrounded by the fruits of common species and yet a sizable proportion of their diet includes fruits of rare species.'” Carlo and is team set out to document just how much of the seed rain—the seeds that fall to the ground due to birds’ activities—is composed of rare species. The scientists established 10 experimental plots in deforested areas of Puerto Rico. Within these plots, they monitored the activities of birds, their seed rain, and the establishment of plants. The team found that the six most common fruiting tree species accounted for 91.3 percent of the seeds available to birds. Yet, seeds from these common species comprised only small percent of the seeds distributed by birds. The remaining large percent of the seeds distributed by birds came from majority if plant species of lesser abundance. In addition, when common species became rare because of the season, birds ate proportionally more of them. This type of behavior not only accelerated the regeneration of forests in experimental plots, but also made the plant communities more diverse than otherwise would be expected. The results appear in the journal Ecology. “It appears that fruit-eating birds are drawn to rare species, and this behavior can affect the reproductive potential of plants in a way that favors species of lesser abundance,” says Carlo. “When faced with a buffet of food choices, including millions of fruits from common plant species and perhaps only a few hundred or thousand fruits from rare species, birds select the rare fruits in proportions that are higher than what are represented in nature.” Why do birds seek out rare species when so many common species are available? “If you think about what you would put on your own plate to eat,” says Carlo, “it doesn’t matter if there are 500 kilograms of potato and only 1 kilogram of meat available; you’re not going to keep those proportions on your plate. As long as there is meat available, the ratio of potato to meat on your plate is going to be lower than what’s available.”