0000000000076454
AUTHOR
Sebastian Menke
Offspring microbiomes differ across breeding sites in a panmictic species.
High dispersal rates are known to homogenize host’s population genetic structure in panmictic species and to disrupt host local adaptation to the environment. Long-distance dispersal might also spread micro-organisms across large geographical areas. However, so far, to which extent selection mechanisms that shape host’s population genetics are mirrored in the population structure of the enteric microbiome remains unclear. High dispersal rates and horizontal parental transfer may homogenize bacterial communities between breeding sites (homogeneous hypothesis). Alternatively, strong selection from the local environment may differentiate bacterial communities between breeding sites (heterogene…
Plant-frugivore networks are less specialized and more robust at forest-farmland edges than in the interior of a tropical forest
Forest fragmentation and local disturbance are prevailing threats to tropical forest ecosystems and affect frugivore communities and animal seed dispersal in different ways. However, very little is known about the effects of anthropogenic forest edges and of local disturbance on the structure and robustness of plant–frugivore networks. We carried out focal tree observations to record the frugivore species feeding on eight canopy tree species in the forest interior and at forest–farmland edges in a little and a highly disturbed part of a Kenyan rain forest. For each frugivore species, we recorded its body mass and its forest dependence. We examined how forest edge and local disturbance affec…