Title
Hummingbird-Plant Network in a Lowland Dry Forest in Yucatan, Mexico
Date Issued
01 January 2020
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Publisher(s)
SAGE Publications Inc.
Abstract
Pollination by animals contributes to the production of nearly 87.5% of the seeds and fruits in the world. Hummingbirds are one of the main groups of pollinating birds in the Americas, and they form pollination networks with the plants they visit. Few hummingbird-plant networks have been studied in tropical dry forest, which is one of the vegetation types most affected by deforestation worldwide. In this study, we describe the characteristics of the core species of a mutualistic hummingbird-plant network in a lowland dry forest located on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. The study lasted a full year, from August 2017 to June 2018. Using point counts and focal observations, we identified three species of hummingbirds that visited eight plant species. The network was highly connected and had three modules—one for each hummingbird species. The core hummingbird species was Chlorostilbon canivetii, and the key plants were Cordia dodecandra, Senna racemosa and Psittacanthus mayanus. This hummingbird-plant network is apparently driven by water availability, which determines plant phenology, which in turn, determines hummingbird activity. In the context of global extinction, the conservation of core species will be critical to maintain the interactions that support all of the species in the network.
Volume
13
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Zoología, Ornitología, Entomología, ciencias biológicas del comportamiento
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85096567893
Source
Tropical Conservation Science
ISSN of the container
19400829
Sponsor(s)
Research permits were granted by SEDUMA and the government of the State of Yucatán, and Edesio Echeverría was our guide in the field. We thank Weather Spark for permission to reproduce their weather graphs. We thank Sarah Bologna, Lynna Kiere, and an anonymous reviewer for their comments, which improved this paper. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Funds for this research were provided by CONACyT (project # 258364). R.O.-P. won and received the general funds, and V. M.-G. received a scholarship from this funds. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Funds for this research were provided by CONACyT (project # 258364). R.O.-P. won and received the general funds, and V. M.-G. received a scholarship from this funds.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus