Senescence of Manilkara zapota trees and implications for large frugivorous birds in the Southern Yucatan Peninsula,Mexico |
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Authors: | Martinus Jacobus Antonius Weterings,Suzanne Maria Weterings-Schonck,Henricus Franciscus Maria Vester,Sophie Calmé |
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Affiliation: | 1. University of Groningen, P.O. Box 14, 9750 AA Haren, The Netherlands;2. Van Hall Larenstein, Agora 1, 8934 CJ Leeuwarden, The Netherlands;3. El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR), AP 424 Chetumal, 77000 Quintana Roo, Mexico;4. Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), Universiteit van Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94062, NL 1090GB Amsterdam, The Netherlands;5. McGill University, Department of Biology, 1205 Dr Penfield Avenue, Montreal, Que., Canada H3A 1B1 |
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Abstract: | It has long been established that mature forests are mosaics of patches in different development phases but it has seldom explicitly been taken into account in ecological studies. We demonstrate here that these development phases, which are related to the population dynamics of trees, play an important role in the distribution of fauna based on observations on frugivorous birds. In an area close to the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Mexico, we studied the abundance of large forest bird species in relation to forest development phases, with a methodology that seems promising for ecological diagnosis and prognosis in forest management planning. Fine-scale forest mapping and bird counts were carried out in two block-transects of 40 m × 3000 m. Tree sampling in a sub-transect was used to generate population characteristics of trees. Large bird species preferred mature or senescent forest patches, whereas relatively young, growing forest patches were avoided. Important large tree species such as Manilkara zapota, Thouinia paucidentata, Guaiacum sanctum and Esenbeckia pentaphylla, characteristic of older forest patches, showed skewed size distributions indicating stress or overexploitation. The population of M. zapota, a key fruiting species that accounted for 26.5% of the total woody biomass, was most heavily affected by stress. A future collapse in the population of M. zapota, a decrease of the total area of older forest, and a decline in the abundance of large birds is likely if stress on the system continues at this level. |
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Keywords: | Ecological forest units Exploitation Forest community assessment Large bird species Manilkara zapota (L.) P. Royen Tree size-distributions |
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