Tropical Fruits and Frugivores The Search for Strong Interactors [Hardcover]

In this book we undertake one of the first global-scale comparisons of the relationships between tropical plants and frugivorous animal communities, comparing sites within and across continents. In total, 12 primary contributors, including noted plant and animal ecologists, present newly-analyzed long-term datasets on the floristics and phenological rhythms of their study sites, identifying important seed dispersers and key plant taxa that sustain animal communities in Africa, Madagascar, Australasia, and the Neotropics.In this book we undertake one of the first global-scale comparisons of the relationships between tropical plants and frugivorous animal communities, comparing sites within and across continents. In total, 12 primary contributors, including noted plant and animal ecologists, present newly-analyzed long-term datasets on the floristics and phenological rhythms of their study sites, identifying important seed dispersers and key plant taxa that sustain animal communities in Africa, Madagascar, Australasia, and the Neotropics.Preface.Introduction: Frugivory, Phenology, and Rainforest Conservation; J.L. Dew.Do Frugivore Population Fluctuations Reflect Fruit Production? Evidence from Panama; K. Milton et al.Potential Keystone Plant Species for the Frugivore Community at Tinigua Park, Colombia; P. Stevenson.Floristics, Primary Productivity and Primate Diversity in Amazonia: Contrasting a Eutrophic Varzea Forest and an Oligotrophic Caatinga Forest in Brazil; J.P. Boubli.A 12-Year Phenological Record of Fruiting: Implications for Frugivore Populations and Indicators of Climate Change; C.C. Chapman et al.An Intersite Comparison of Fruit Characteristics in Madagascar: Evidence for Selection Pressure through Abiotic Constraints Rather Than through Co-evolution; A. Bollen et al.The Key to Madagascar Frugivores; P.C. Wright et al. Fruiting Phenology and Pre-dispersal Seed Predation in a Rainforest in Southern Western Ghats, India; T. Ganesh, P. Davidar.Fast Foods oflC-