Animals like Capuchin Sinkeys help spread seeds in tropical forests
Carlos Grillo / Getty Images / Istockphoto
Tropical forests populated by a diversity of animals dispersing the seeds can accumulate carbon up to four times faster than fragmented forests where these animals are absent or their movement is restricted.
“This shows a link between the loss of animal biodiversity and a process that aggravates climate change,” said Evan Fricke at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “We lose the regrowth of tropical forests.”
The animals contain only a small fraction of the carbon stored in the environments where they live. But there is growing recognition that their activities can have disproportionate impacts on the carbon of their ecosystems. An important contribution comes from animals such as monkeys, birds and rodents, whose behavior disperses a wide variety of seeds in a large area.
However, “it was really difficult to translate this into long -scale processes such as the recovery of the carbon of whole landscapes”, explains Fricke.
Fricke and his colleagues analyzed more than 3000 plots in tropical forests where trees grew – and accumulated carbon – after a disturbance. They then estimated the quantity of disturbance of the movement and the diversity of animals dispersing the seeds in each plot. Estimates were based on factors such as the quantity of forest fragmentation and the data of the animals followed.
They noted more disturbance in the movement of seed dispersers were clearly linked to a lower rate of carbon accumulation. The forests that have had the least disruption of their animals’ habits increased four times faster than the most disturbed.
On average, the disturbances of the diversity and the movement of animals dispersing the seeds reduced the amount of carbon that the plots could accumulate in half. This means that disturbances have had an even more important negative effect than other factors limiting the regrowth of trees, such as fires or cattle grazing.
Conversely, forests with the smallest disturbances accumulated carbon even faster than monoculture tree plantations. “Natural growth amplified by animals offers a low -cost catering strategy and positive biodiversity,” explains Fricke.
Previously, the ecological models suggested by the seeds of seeds could have a substantial effect on carbon. But this study “improves our understanding of the importance of these animals,” said Oswald Schmitz at the University of Yale. “And it shows that they will be important.”
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