Format: ORAL

Andressa Cabral1, Irene M.A. Bender2, Thomas L.P. Couvreur3, Sren Faurby4,5, Oskar Hagen1, Isabell Hensen6, Ingolf Khn7, Herv Sauquet8,9, Joseph Tobias10, Renske E. Onstein1,11

1 German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle – Jena - Leipzig 2 Instituto de Ecología Regional CONICET-UNT 3 IRD, DIADE, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France 4 Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Box 461, SE 40530, Göteborg, Sweden 5 Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Box 461, SE 40530 Göteborg, Sweden; 3 6 Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden 7 Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Department Community Ecology 8 Laboratoire Écologie, Systématique, Évolution, Université Paris-Sud, CNRS UMR 8079, 91405 Orsay, France 9 National Herbarium of New South Wales (NSW), Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia 10 Imperial College London, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park) 11 Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Darwinweg 2, 2333CR Leiden, the Netherlands

Tropical rainforests are the most diverse ecosystems in the world, but the underlying drivers of this diversity remain debated. Mutualistic interactions between fruits and frugivores (i.e., fruit-eating and seed-dispersing animals) are prominent in tropical rainforests, and may influence diversification and diversity. These interactions are facilitated by the evolution of functional trait matching between plants and frugivores, leading to the evolution of fruit dispersal syndromes. Here, we hypothesize that co-diversification and selection on co-evolving traits has shaped plant-frugivore interactions and co-occurrence across broad-scale assemblages. We integrated global occurrence and novel frugivory-related trait data for 2000 species of a pantropical plant lineage (Annonaceae) with data for all 5,159 frugivorous birds and mammals. We applied functional diversity metrics, structural equation models, and fourth corner analyses to evaluate whether there is a match in the global distribution of plant and frugivore taxonomic richness and dispersal syndromes. We show that global variation in Annonaceae species and functional diversity was strongly influenced by the diversity and trait matching of co-occurring frugivorous mammals, whereas frugivorous birds affected Annonaceae diversity within particular regions: the Asia-Pacific and Afrotropics. Additional direct and indirect effects of climate, elevation, and net primary productivity on plant and animal diversity were found. This suggests that high diversity of fleshy-fruited plants across tropical forests is at least partly shaped by diversification-dependent co-evolutionary dynamics and selection on co-evolving frugivory-related traits such as fruit length and growth form with beak volume, hand wing index, body mass, and colour vision. Our results also suggest that biogeography and scale-dependence modulate how mutualistic interactions promote diversity, with mammals shaping intercontinental and birds primarily shaping intracontinental patterns. Our work builds on studies of particular animal groups or regions by providing a global view of how frugivores have shaped pantropical variation in plant species richness and traits.