Lisieux Fuzessy

São Paulo State University | Unesp ·  Institute of Biosciences

To define the chances of a dispersed seed to produce a new recruit, it is essential to consider all stages of the dispersal process. Howler monkeys are recognized to have positive impacts on forest regeneration, acting as primary dispersers. Furthermore, dung beetles attracted to their feces protect the seeds against predators, and provide a better...

Seed dispersal benefits plants and frugivores, and potentially drives co-evolution, with consequences to diversification evidenced for, e.g., primates. Evidence for macro-coevolutionary patterns in multi-specific, plant-animal mutualisms is scarce, and the mechanisms driving them remain unexplored. We tested for phylogenetic congruences in primate-...

Human population growth and the activities resulting in habitat destruction are a threat to biodiversity worldwide. Despite the recognized importance of dung beetles in supporting tropical forest ecosystems, our understanding of their susceptibility to anthropogenic pressures remains limited. Previous research detailed the overall consequences of h...

Seed dispersal distance (SDD) is a vital component of vertebrate-mediated seed dispersal process: the average distance at which seeds are deposited away from the parent plant represents the starting template of plant regeneration. We present a simple model to explain and predict observed measures of average dispersal distance and we hypothesize tha...

The recent availability of open‐access repositories of functional traits has revolutionized trait‐based approaches in ecology and evolution. Nevertheless, the underrepresentation of tropical regions and lineages remains a pervasive bias in plant functional trait databases, which constrains large‐scale assessments of plant ecology, evolution, and bi...

The recent availability of open-access repositories of functional traits has revolutionized trait-based approaches in ecology and evolution. Nevertheless, the underrepresentation of tropical regions and lineages remains a pervasive bias in plant functional trait databases, which constrains large-scale assessments of plant ecology, evolution, and bi...

Tropical species richness is threatened by habitat degradation associated with land‐use conversion, yet the consequences for functional diversity remain little understood. Progress has been hindered by difficulties in obtaining comprehensive species‐level trait information to characterize entire assemblages and insufficient appreciation that increa...

Scientists are becoming increasingly aware that disparities in opportunities for conducting and publishing research among scientists living under different socio-economic contexts have created pervasive biases and long-lasting impacts on our views of the natural world. These disparities are challenging the establishment of a global research agenda...

Coevolution played a central role in shaping biodiversity. However, coevolutionary events driving reciprocal diversification between interacting partners lack empirical evidences. Examples of diversification arising from mutualisms and antagonisms at different trophic levels are scarce, which limits our understanding on how complex relationships be...

The presence of other animals, both conspecifics and heterospecifics, is a major driving force for how animals organize themselves in space and time. Although theoretical models are available to explain the role of each in animal movement, fine-scale assessments of daily movement are scarce, particularly for primates. Hence, our goal was to assess...

Tamarins, small Neotropical primates of the genera Saguinus and Leontocebus, have a mainly frugivorous-faunivorous diet. While consuming the pulp of a high diversity of fruit species, they also swallow seeds and void them intact, thus acting as seed dispersers. Here we compare different aspects of the seed dispersal ecology of tamarins with that of...

Disentangling the structure of plant–animal mutualisms shed light on how species are organized, and allow us to infer about resilience, specificity, and ultimately the consequences of the loss of functions to the ecosystem. Here we gathered fruit–frugivore interactions for all the major vertebrate taxa interacting with plants in two conservation st...

Brazil experienced the largest socioenvironmental catastrophe of its history, caused by a tailings dam failure, known as “Mariana disaster”. The wave of iron-mining waste buried villages, contaminated the Doce River, and left an immense ocean plume. The Doce River watershed is the largest in southeast Brazil, and located in the Atlantic Forest doma...

Global anthropogenic changes cause major impacts on species interactions, with cascading effects on ecosystem functioning. Animal-mediated pollination and seed dispersal are major mutualisms associated with distinct stages of plant reproduction. Nevertheless, we lack an integrated assessment on how multiple anthropogenic impacts affect these interr...

Background and aims Much of our understanding of the ecology and evolution of seed dispersal in the Neotropics is founded on studies involving the animal-dispersed, hyper-diverse plant clade Miconia (Melastomataceae). Nonetheless, no formal attempt has been made to establish its relevance as a model system or indeed provide evidence of the role of...

Seed dispersal, by entailing multiple benefits to plants and frugivores, potential drives trait evolution and species diversification. Frugivory and seed dispersal shaped the coevolution of interacting clades, with consequences to speciation and diversification evidenced for e.g., primates. Evidences for macro-coevolutionary patterns in multi-speci...

Questions Environmental filters limit the set of potentially coexisting species in plant communities. Paradoxically, some of the world's most biodiverse communities are subjected to strong abiotic filters. We explored how environmental heterogeneity provides conditions for niche segregation in a harsh megadiverse ecosystem, focusing on fine‐scale f...

As humanity continues to alter the environment extensively, comprehending the effect of anthropogenic disturbances on the health, survival, and fitness of wildlife is a crucial question for conservation science. Many primate populations occupy suboptimal habitats prone to diverse anthropogenic disturbances that may be sources of acute and chronic s...

Primates are great fruit consumers and disperse intact seeds from most of the plants they consume, but effective seed dispersal depends, amongst other factors, on handling behavior. Likewise, the treatment in gut and mouth may alter seed fate. Overall, frugivore and folivore-frugivore primates are recognized to provide beneficial gut treatment for...

Identifying the impact of anthropogenic disturbances on the health, survival, and well-being of species has become a key question of conservation biology. Many primate species are forest-dependent, making them particularly vulnerable to habitat change and excellent ecological indicators in tropical ecosystems. Before affecting primates at a populat...

Identifying the impact of anthropogenic disturbances on the health, survival, and well-being of species has become a key question of conservation biology. Many primate species are forest-dependent, making them particularly vulnerable to habitat change and excellent ecological indicators in tropical ecosystems. Before affecting primates at a populat...

Perturbações antrópicas são associadas a efeitos deletérios sobre a biodiversidade e se aplicam de diferentemente sobre os grupos biológicos. O tipo de efeito e a intensidade variam, podendo beneficiar determinados grupos, como as formigas cortadeiras (Atta sp.). Dada sua importância nos ecossistemas em que ocorrem e a escassez de estudos em flores...

As interações ecológicas têm um papel fundamental na estrutura e composição das comunidades. As espécies da tribo Attini, especialmente o gênero Atta tem a capacidade de alterar o ambiente, principalmente a comunidade de plantas, devido ao seu papel de engenheiras do ecossistema. Elas podem modificar a comunidade de plantas devido à sua atividade d...

http://www.newphytologist.org/img/upload/files/43rd%20NPS%20Abstract%20Book.pdf

Primates play an important role in ecosystem functioning and offer critical insights into human evolution, biology, behavior, and emerging infectious diseases. There are 26 primate species in the Atlantic Forests of South America, 19 of them endemic. We compiled a dataset of 5,472 georeferenced locations of 26 native and 1 introduced primate specie...

Large vertebrates are important elements of mutualistic interactions and provide positive impacts on plant population and community dynamics. Despite the increasing interest on vertebrate frugivory we are still not able to disentangle their real contribution of seed dispersal to Neotropical forest functioning. Consuming fruits does not imply effect...

Primates play an important role in ecosystem functioning and offer critical insights into human evolution, biology, behavior, and emerging infectious diseases. There are 26 primate species in the Atlantic Forests of South America, 19 of them endemic. We compiled a dataset of 5,472 georeferenced locations of 26 native and 1 introduced primate specie...

The balance between the costs and benefits of fleshy fruit production depends on the feeding behavior of their seed dispersers, which might effectively disperse seeds to farther areas or drop beneath parent plants some diaspores they handle during frugivory bouts. Nevertheless, the consequences of variation in fruit handling by primary seed dispers...

Experimental setup for assessment of diaspore removal in the field. A, B—Sampling blocks comprising two tracking stations close to each other, one with diaspore piles accessible to ants and vertebrates (open) and the other accessible exclusively to ants (caged); Wire exclosure cages with seed (C) and fruit piles (D); E—Wire cage structure without m...

Supplementary methods. (PDF)

Overview of the study site and plant species. A, B—Study site encompassing campo rupestre vegetation; C—Miconia irwinii treelet; D—Ripe fruits; E, F—Fruits with fleshy pulp partially eaten by birds. (PDF)

Data from “Handling by avian frugivores affects diaspore secondary removal”. (XLSX)

Birds acting as primary seed dispersers of Miconia irwinii at Serra do Cipó, Brazil. The Cinnamon Tanager (Schistochlamys ruficapillus) (A) and the Black-throated Saltator (Saltatricula atricollis) (B) feeding on M. irwinii fruits, pulp-free seeds stuck to the birds’ bills in detail; the Rufous-collared Sparrow (Zonotrichia capensis) (C), the Plain...

Ground-dwelling fauna recorded during diaspore removal experiments. A—The Brazilian Guinea Pig (Cavia aperea), its feces and footprints found on a tracking station with missing pulp-free seeds (B); The lizards Tropidurus montanus (C), Eurolophosaurus nanuzae (D) and Ameivula cipoensis (E) were frequently recorded near tracking stations; F—The ant C...

The ant Camponotus rufipes as a secondary seed disperser of Miconia irwinii. Edited by AJA. (MP4)

Traps installed to intercept diaspores falling beneath the crown of Miconia irwinii. A, B, C—Fruiting individuals of M. irwinii with diaspore traps; D—Detail of a diaspore trap made with filter paper attached to wire circles; E—A twine coated with sticky barrier in detail; F—The Chalk-browed Mockingbird (Mimus saturninus) feeding on M. irwinii frui...

S2 Fig. Traps installed to intercept diaspores falling beneath the crown of Miconia irwinii. A, B, C - Fruiting individuals of M. irwinii with diaspore traps; D - Detail of a diaspore trap made with filter paper attached to wire circles; E - A twine coated with sticky barrier in detail; F - The Chalk-browed Mockingbird (Mimus saturninus) feeding on...

S1 Fig. Overview of the study site and plant species. A, B - Study site encompassing campo rupestre vegetation; C - Miconia irwinii treelet; D - Ripe fruits; E, F - Fruits with fleshy pulp partially eaten by birds.

S4 Fig. Birds acting as primary seed dispersers of Miconia irwinii at Serra do Cipó, Brazil. The Cinnamon Tanager (Schistochlamys ruficapillus) (A) and the Black-throated Saltator (Saltatricula atricollis) (B) feeding on M. irwinii fruits, pulp-free seeds stuck to the birds’ bills in detail; the Rufous-collared Sparrow (Zonotrichia capensis) (C), t...

S1 Text. Supplementary methods.

S1 Film. The ant Camponotus rufipes as a secondary seed disperser of Miconia irwinii. Edited by André Jardin Arruda.

S3 Fig. Experimental setup for assessment of diaspore removal in the field. A, B - Sampling blocks comprising two tracking stations close to each other, one with diaspore piles accessible to ants and vertebrates (open) and the other accessible exclusively to ants (caged); Wire exclosure cages with seed (C) and fruit piles (D); E - Wire cage structu...

S5 Fig. Ground-dwelling fauna recorded during diaspore removal experiments. A - The Brazilian Guinea Pig (Cavia aperea), its feces and footprints found on a tracking station with missing pulp-free seeds (B); The lizards Tropidurus montanus (C), Eurolophosaurus nanuzae (D) and Ameivula cipoensis (E) were frequently recorded near tracking stations; F...

Rapid Morphological Changes (RMCs) in rodents has been frequently documented. However, relation between RMCs and potential environmental drivers has been understudied. Here, we utilized a museum collection of four rodent species, collected in the same Atlantic Forest fragment, to investigate variation in the skull morphology over time, and test the...

Ex situ seed conservation is an effective strategy to help safeguarding plants from extinction. The updated Global Strategy for Plant Conservation's (GSPC) Target 8 aims to include 75% of threatened plant species in ex situ collections by 2020, preferably in the country of origin. Halfway through the updated GSPC program, we evaluate the current st...

Biotic seed dispersal is a key process maintaining biodiversity in tropical forests where most trees produce vertebrate‐dispersed seeds. Existing meta‐analyses suggest an overall positive effect of vertebrate gut passage on seed germination, but no significant effects for non‐flying mammals. However, previous meta‐analyses combined rodents (seed pr...

Previous studies have shown a nonrandom pattern of ovule fate probabilities according to ovule position in legume pods. Here, we tested how ovule position within the pods of two Fabaceae affects its fate. We expected higher proportion of well-formed seeds near the fruit tips and of unfertilized and aborted ovules near fruit bases. We collected pods...

Animal hybridization is well documented, but evolutionary outcomes and conservation priorities often differ for natural and anthropogenic hybrids. Among primates, an order with many endangered species, the two contexts can be hard to disentangle from one another, which carries important conservation implications. Callithrix marmosets give us a uniq...

Hybridization is continually documented in primates, but effects of natural and anthropogenic hybridization on biodiversity are still unclear and differ-entiating between these contexts remains challenging in regards to primate evolution and conservation. Here, we examine hybridization effects on the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region of Call...

This paper aims to describe the hematological and biochemical values of wild hybrid marmoset (Callithrix penicillata and C. geoffroyi) found in a forest zone of Southeastern Brazil. The marmosets were anaesthetized using ketamine and xylazine hydrochloride. Blood samples (0.5-1mL) were collected through the venipuncture of the femoral vein. Hematol...

Evolutionary theory and observation predict wider phenotypic variation in hybrids than parental species. Emergent phenotypic novelty in hybrids may in turn drive new adaptations or speciation by breaking parental phenotypic constraints. Primate hybridization is often documented through genetic evidence, but knowledge about the primate hybrid phenot...

The objective of this study was to identify the helminth fauna in hybrid, non-native marmosets, through analysis of fecal samples. The study involved 51 marmosets (genus Callithrix) from five groups living in places with levels of human impact in Viçosa-MG. The marmosets were caught using a multiple-entrance trap and were anaesthetized. Feces were...