Structural but not functional resistance of frugivore-plant interaction networks to the defaunation process

Description

We investigated the effect of defaunation on the structure and function of two frugivore interaction networks in the tropical dry forest of northern Colombia. We combined data from field observations of fruit consumption with species extinction simulation models. For these models, we used three different scenarios in the order of species removal: random extinction and from larger to smaller body size in both the structural and functional components. The third scenario was used as a baseline for comparison and corresponds to the worst-case scenario according to the component, i.e., from highest to lowest contribution to network structure (CNS) in the structural component and from highest to lowest contribution to seed dispersal potential (SDP) in the functional component. The data show the results of calculating the structure (nestedness and modularity) and function (richness and functional evenness) metrics in each of the extinction steps per scenario.

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