Data from: The role of trait combination in the conspicuousness of fruit display among bird-dispersed plants

In visually-driven seed dispersal mutualisms, natural selection should promote plant strategies that maximize fruit visibility to dispersers. Plants might increase seed dispersal profitability by increasing conspicuousness of fruit display, understood as a plant strategy to maximize fruit detectability by seed dispersers.
The role of different plant traits in fruit choice and consumption by seed dispersers has been broadly studied. However, there is no clear evidence about the importance of the traits that increase conspicuousness of fruit display. Because strategies to maximize conspicuousness of fruit display are diverse, and usually are expected to be costly, we would expect that individual plant species will produce an efficient combination of traits.We explored this prediction with 62 fleshy-fruited plant species of a subtropical Andean forest (Southern Yungas), and using a large dataset of fruit consumption by birds (4,476 records). The conspicuousness of fruit display was characterized by both fruit and plant traits including chromatic contrast, size, exposure, aggregation, and crop size of fruits. We also considered phylogenetic effects on phenotypic variation.Fruit consumption was explained by fruit chromatic contrast depending on fruit crop size. These traits revealed low phylogenetic effects, with the exception of four plant clades at different levels in the phylogenetic tree. Negative correlations between pairs of traits support our assumption that fruit display traits are costly, suggesting natural selection favours parsimonious evolutionary pathways.
Plant species seem rely on conspicuousness of fruit display by a combination of traits that might minimize costs of fruit display. This appears adaptively relevant to improve communication with mutualistic animals, to increase fruit consumption in a community context and, ultimately, to enhance the profitability of seed dispersal.

在视觉驱动的种子扩散互利关系（visually-driven seed dispersal mutualisms）中，自然选择应会推动植物演化出最大化果实对扩散者可见性的策略。植物可通过提升果实展示的醒目性来提高种子扩散的收益，而果实展示醒目性指的是植物最大化果实被种子扩散者探测到的概率的策略。
不同植物性状在种子扩散者选择和取食果实过程中的作用已得到广泛研究。然而，目前尚无明确证据表明哪些性状能够提升果实展示的醒目性。由于提升果实展示醒目性的策略多种多样，且通常被认为具有演化成本，我们推测单个植物物种会形成一套高效的性状组合。
我们以安第斯亚热带森林（南部永加斯地区）的62种肉质果植物为研究对象，结合鸟类取食果实的大型数据集（共4476条记录），对这一推测展开了验证。果实展示的醒目性通过果实及植物自身的多重性状进行表征，包括色彩对比度、果实大小、暴露程度、聚集程度以及结实量。我们同时考量了系统发育效应对表型变异的影响。
鸟类的果实取食量可通过果实色彩对比度结合结实量进行解释。除了系统发育树不同层级的4个植物演化支外，这些性状的系统发育效应均较弱。性状间的负相关关系验证了我们关于果实展示性状存在演化成本的假设，这表明自然选择倾向于选择简约的演化路径。
植物物种似乎通过组合多种性状来提升果实展示的醒目性，同时尽可能降低果实展示的成本。这一策略在适应性上具有重要意义：可优化与互利共生动物的信号交流，提升群落尺度下的果实取食率，并最终提高种子扩散的收益。