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Structure and characteristics of plant-frugivore network in Guilin Botanical Garden
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  • GuoHai Wang,
  • Yang Huang,
  • Wei Yao,
  • Qiming Tang,
  • Qiuchang Huang,
  • Yongping Huang,
  • Lijuan Wei,
  • Qihai Zhou
GuoHai Wang
Guangxi Normal University for Nationalities

Corresponding Author:1016729581@qq.com

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Yang Huang
Guangxi Normal University
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Wei Yao
Guangxi Normal University
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Qiming Tang
Guangxi Institute of Botany
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Qiuchang Huang
Guangxi Normal University for Nationalities
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Yongping Huang
Guangxi Normal University for Nationalities
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Lijuan Wei
Guangxi Normal University for Nationalities
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Qihai Zhou
Guangxi Normal University
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Abstract

The interaction between plants and frugivores plays a critical role in sustaining ecosystem function and community diversity, but little is known about the structure of interaction networks between fruit plants and frugivore birds in urban green spaces. We observed the interactions between plants and birds throughout the year in the Guilin Botanical Garden and assessed the characteristics of the total plant-frugivore and seasonal networks. We also analyzed the relationship between the network roles of species and ecological traits to explore the structure and characteristics of the plant-frugivore network. The interactions between a total of 14 frugivore birds and 13 fruit plant species were analyzed in the study area, the autumn and winter interaction connections contributed 38.79% and 33.15% to the total network, respectively. The specialization (H2´), and interaction evenness (E2) of the network were higher in spring and summer than that in autumn and winter. However, connectance (C), nestedness, and interaction diversity (H2) were contrary to the specialization and interaction evenness of the network. Compared to the networks (N=1000) generated by the null model, the observed network exhibited lower connectance (C), interaction diversity(H2), interaction evenness (E2), and higher nestedness and specialization (H2´). A correlation analysis combining ecological traits and network roles showed that plants with black fruit had higher species strength, whereas the other traits of plants and birds were not significantly correlated with their network parameters.