Abstract

PACHECO, Luis F.  and  SIMONETTI, Javier A.. Demographic consequences for Inga ingoides (Mimosoideae) of the loss of Ateles paniscus (Cebidae), one of its seed dispersers. Ecología en Bolivia [online]. 1998, n.31, pp.67-90.  Epub Apr 30, 1998. ISSN 1605-2528.

Larger species are especially vulnerable to local extinction by subsistence hunting in neotropical forests. Among them are important seed dispersers like Ateles paniscus, the main disperser of Inga ingoides at the Biosphere Reserve Estación Biológica Beni. Because of this strong interaction, local extinction of A. paniscus should produce a shorter tail of the I. ingoides seed shadow. Resultant changes in distribution and possible abundance of seedlings should not affect their survival, because both seeds and seedlings would be agregated in presence as well as in absence of the disperser. As predicted, changes in distribution and abundance of seedlings were observed in absence of A. paniscus. Seed survival did not differ close and far from adult trees, but seedling survival tends to increase with distance to conspecific adult trees. In the long term, these changes might produce denser and more agreggated populations of I. ingoides.

Keywords : Seed dispersal; Ateles; Inga; demography; defaunation; subsistence hunting.

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