More than half of plant species rely on animals to disperse their seeds. In a study featured on the cover of this week’s issue of Science, U.S. and Danish researchers showed the ability of animal-dispersed plants to keep pace with climate change has been reduced by 60% due to the loss of mammals and birds that help such plants adapt to environmental change.
Researchers from Rice University, the University of Maryland, Iowa State University and Aarhus University used machine learning and data from thousands of field studies to map the contributions of seed-dispersing birds and mammals worldwide. To understand the severity of the declines , the researchers compared maps of seed dispersal today with maps showing what dispersal would look like without human-caused extinctions or species range restrictions.
“Some plants live hundreds of years, and their only chance to move is during the short period when they're a seed moving across the landscape,” said Rice ecologist Evan Fricke, the study's first author.
