The potential ecological collapse of the seed dispersal network in an insular high mountain: Teide National Park
Human-induced habitat degradation has caused declines in plant and animal populations, resulting in the extinction of many frugivores and the loss of mutualistic interactions such as seed dispersal. In Teide National Park (Tenerife, Canary Islands), nearly 2000 years of human activity have likely di...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2025-10-01
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| Series: | Global Ecology and Conservation |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989425003944 |
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| Summary: | Human-induced habitat degradation has caused declines in plant and animal populations, resulting in the extinction of many frugivores and the loss of mutualistic interactions such as seed dispersal. In Teide National Park (Tenerife, Canary Islands), nearly 2000 years of human activity have likely disrupted the seed dispersal service, leaving behind a depauperated ecosystem in urgent need of restoration. To evaluate the extent of this impoverishment, we built and compared the ‘current’ and ‘potentially lost’ seed dispersal networks between native fleshy-fruited plants and seed dispersers. The current network was built using field data collected in 2020–2021 and complemented with published records. The potential network included likely lost interactions, which were inferred based on both extant and historically recorded native seed dispersers. Our results reveal that the current network comprises 15 distinct interactions among seven seed dispersers and six plant species. A total of 67 % of the plant species are threatened, and seed dispersers have extremely low population sizes. The potential network has 48 distinct interactions (90 % of them involving extant partners), suggesting that 69 % of the interactions have likely been lost. Moreover, the reconstructed potential network showed greater robustness and, thus, higher resilience, highlighting the extent of functional loss. Our findings underscore a severe impoverishment in seed dispersal services and emphasize the urgent need for targeted management interventions to restore ecosystem functionality. Finally, this case study highlights the value of ecological networks in guiding conservation efforts to regenerate degraded ecosystems and reestablish native frugivore populations to prevent further collapse of seed dispersal systems. |
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| ISSN: | 2351-9894 |