{"id":{"repo_id":"east-anglia","oai_identifier":"oai:ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk:41400"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/east-anglia/oai:ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk:41400","repository":{"repo_id":"east-anglia","name":"University of East Anglia","base_url":"https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/cgi/oai2"},"display":{"title":"Fruits and frugivory in neotropical primates and in Amazonian flooded and unflooded forests","abstract":"The richness and resilience of tropical forest ecosystems are best described by the myriad of ecological interactions linking co-occurring species together. The many functions previously served by ecological links are often only detected once these links are lost. Of particular interest in this regard are the mutualistic networks between fruiting plants and vertebrate frugivores, whose interdependent relationship is fundamental to the functioning of tropical forests. This thesis examined these fruitfrugivore interactions at two contrasting scales, and using two different approaches. On a landscape scale in western Brazilian Amazonia, the focus was on a community-wide assessment, with particular attention paid to the differences between two highly divergent but adjacent species-rich forest types, seasonally-flooded várzea forests and unflooded terra firme forests. As part of this comparison, the powerful role of the annual flood pulse was shown to determine both spatial patterns of forest structure and temporal patterns of fruit production. The strong influence of this seasonal cycle was apparent in the adaptive traits observed in plants and animals, with corresponding effects upon their networks of interactions. The role of frugivore body size as an important trait in relation to the degree of frugivory within consumers was emphasised via one of the most extensive compilations on the feeding ecology of any frugivorous vertebrate taxon. By amassing the observations of feeding records accumulated over several decades of neotropical primate field research, and accounting for the highly variable levels of sampling effort among primate species, the prevalence of frugivory at the mid-high spectrum of body mass was confirmed. This continental-scale metaanalysis also revealed that, despite representing arguably the most observable and wellstudied group of vertebrate frugivores in tropical forests worldwide, most primate species were heavily undersampled in terms of the richness of fruits known to occur in their diets. These astounding gaps in our cumulative knowledge highlight the challenges faced in assembling comprehensive fruit-frugivore networks for entire communities, where the diets of most consumers are even more poorly understood than for primates. This is particularly pertinent in the face of ever-increasing threats to ecosystems comprised of, and sustained by, these complex webs of interactions.","abstract_html":"The richness and resilience of tropical forest ecosystems are best described by the myriad of ecological interactions linking co-occurring species together. The many functions previously served by ecological links are often only detected once these links are lost. Of particular interest in this regard are the mutualistic networks between fruiting plants and vertebrate frugivores, whose interdependent relationship is fundamental to the functioning of tropical forests. This thesis examined these fruitfrugivore interactions at two contrasting scales, and using two different approaches. On a landscape scale in western Brazilian Amazonia, the focus was on a community-wide assessment, with particular attention paid to the differences between two highly divergent but adjacent species-rich forest types, seasonally-flooded várzea forests and unflooded terra firme forests. As part of this comparison, the powerful role of the annual flood pulse was shown to determine both spatial patterns of forest structure and temporal patterns of fruit production. The strong influence of this seasonal cycle was apparent in the adaptive traits observed in plants and animals, with corresponding effects upon their networks of interactions. The role of frugivore body size as an important trait in relation to the degree of frugivory within consumers was emphasised via one of the most extensive compilations on the feeding ecology of any frugivorous vertebrate taxon. By amassing the observations of feeding records accumulated over several decades of neotropical primate field research, and accounting for the highly variable levels of sampling effort among primate species, the prevalence of frugivory at the mid-high spectrum of body mass was confirmed. This continental-scale metaanalysis also revealed that, despite representing arguably the most observable and wellstudied group of vertebrate frugivores in tropical forests worldwide, most primate species were heavily undersampled in terms of the richness of fruits known to occur in their diets. These astounding gaps in our cumulative knowledge highlight the challenges faced in assembling comprehensive fruit-frugivore networks for entire communities, where the diets of most consumers are even more poorly understood than for primates. This is particularly pertinent in the face of ever-increasing threats to ecosystems comprised of, and sustained by, these complex webs of interactions.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Hawes, Joseph E."],"institution":"University of East Anglia","degree_name":"phd","degree_level":"doctoral","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2012,"date_issued":"2012-09","date_published":"2012-09","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:11:51Z","subjects":[],"languages":["en"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":null,"outbound_label":null,"outbound_source":null},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Hawes, Joseph E."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2012-09"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2012-09"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.department","label":"Dc Publisher Department","values":["School of Environmental Sciences"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.institution","label":"Dc Publisher Institution","values":["University of East Anglia"]},{"key":"dc:relation.isreferencedby","label":"Dc Relation Isreferencedby","values":["https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/41400/"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["doctoral"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationname","label":"Dc Type Qualificationname","values":["phd"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/41400/1/2012HawesJEPhD.pdf"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The richness and resilience of tropical forest ecosystems are best described by the myriad of ecological interactions linking co-occurring species together. The many functions previously served by ecological links are often only detected once these links are lost. Of particular interest in this regard are the mutualistic networks between fruiting plants and vertebrate frugivores, whose interdependent relationship is fundamental to the functioning of tropical forests. This thesis examined these fruitfrugivore interactions at two contrasting scales, and using two different approaches. On a landscape scale in western Brazilian Amazonia, the focus was on a community-wide assessment, with particular attention paid to the differences between two highly divergent but adjacent species-rich forest types, seasonally-flooded várzea forests and unflooded terra firme forests. As part of this comparison, the powerful role of the annual flood pulse was shown to determine both spatial patterns of forest structure and temporal patterns of fruit production. The strong influence of this seasonal cycle was apparent in the adaptive traits observed in plants and animals, with corresponding effects upon their networks of interactions. The role of frugivore body size as an important trait in relation to the degree of frugivory within consumers was emphasised via one of the most extensive compilations on the feeding ecology of any frugivorous vertebrate taxon. By amassing the observations of feeding records accumulated over several decades of neotropical primate field research, and accounting for the highly variable levels of sampling effort among primate species, the prevalence of frugivory at the mid-high spectrum of body mass was confirmed. This continental-scale metaanalysis also revealed that, despite representing arguably the most observable and wellstudied group of vertebrate frugivores in tropical forests worldwide, most primate species were heavily undersampled in terms of the richness of fruits known to occur in their diets. These astounding gaps in our cumulative knowledge highlight the challenges faced in assembling comprehensive fruit-frugivore networks for entire communities, where the diets of most consumers are even more poorly understood than for primates. This is particularly pertinent in the face of ever-increasing threats to ecosystems comprised of, and sustained by, these complex webs of interactions."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Fruits and frugivory in neotropical primates and in Amazonian flooded and unflooded forests"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Hawes, Joseph E."],"dc:date":["2012-09"],"dc:date.issued":["2012-09"],"dc:description.abstract":["The richness and resilience of tropical forest ecosystems are best described by the myriad of ecological interactions linking co-occurring species together. The many functions previously served by ecological links are often only detected once these links are lost. Of particular interest in this regard are the mutualistic networks between fruiting plants and vertebrate frugivores, whose interdependent relationship is fundamental to the functioning of tropical forests. This thesis examined these fruitfrugivore interactions at two contrasting scales, and using two different approaches. On a landscape scale in western Brazilian Amazonia, the focus was on a community-wide assessment, with particular attention paid to the differences between two highly divergent but adjacent species-rich forest types, seasonally-flooded várzea forests and unflooded terra firme forests. As part of this comparison, the powerful role of the annual flood pulse was shown to determine both spatial patterns of forest structure and temporal patterns of fruit production. The strong influence of this seasonal cycle was apparent in the adaptive traits observed in plants and animals, with corresponding effects upon their networks of interactions. The role of frugivore body size as an important trait in relation to the degree of frugivory within consumers was emphasised via one of the most extensive compilations on the feeding ecology of any frugivorous vertebrate taxon. By amassing the observations of feeding records accumulated over several decades of neotropical primate field research, and accounting for the highly variable levels of sampling effort among primate species, the prevalence of frugivory at the mid-high spectrum of body mass was confirmed. This continental-scale metaanalysis also revealed that, despite representing arguably the most observable and wellstudied group of vertebrate frugivores in tropical forests worldwide, most primate species were heavily undersampled in terms of the richness of fruits known to occur in their diets. These astounding gaps in our cumulative knowledge highlight the challenges faced in assembling comprehensive fruit-frugivore networks for entire communities, where the diets of most consumers are even more poorly understood than for primates. This is particularly pertinent in the face of ever-increasing threats to ecosystems comprised of, and sustained by, these complex webs of interactions."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/41400/1/2012HawesJEPhD.pdf"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:publisher.department":["School of Environmental Sciences"],"dc:publisher.institution":["University of East Anglia"],"dc:relation.isreferencedby":["https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/41400/"],"dc:title":["Fruits and frugivory in neotropical primates and in Amazonian flooded and unflooded forests"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"dc:type.qualificationlevel":["doctoral"],"dc:type.qualificationname":["phd"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:11:51Z"}