Seed dispersal “crisis” may impact plant species’ future in Europe

Europe is facing a seed dispersal “crisis,” due to extinction threats and population changes among the animals that do the seed dispersing, according to a new synthesis by Sara Beatriz Mendes and colleagues. Their literature review of animal and plant dispersal pairs helped them reconstruct the first European-wide seed dispersal network. Seed dispersal by animals is a critical part of maintaining healthy ecosystems, especially in fragmented environments like those found throughout Europe. Lack of seed dispersal to connect populations could prevent declining plant populations from recovering. Researchers have thought that the loss of animal species in the region might impact this important process, but little is known about how these disperser-plant pairs are disrupted by species loss. Beatriz Mendes et al. found that one-third of these crucial interactions are of high concern, meaning that the species participating in them are listed as near threatened, threatened, or with declining populations by the IUCN Red List. They further note that 30% of plant species have most of their dispersers in the high concern category. Each animal species dispersed on average 13 plant species, while each plant species had on average nine dispersers. While the researchers acknowledge that there are significant gaps in disperser relationship data, they suggest their findings could be used to target conservation efforts to preserve high-concern disperser relationships.