A large-scale assessment of plant dispersal mode and seed traits across human-modified Amazonian forests

1. Quantifying the impact of habitat disturbance on ecosystem function is critical for understanding and predicting the future of tropical forests. Many studies have examined post-disturbance changes in animal traits related to mutualistic interactions with plants, but the effect of disturbance on plant traits in diverse forests has received much less attention.
2. Focusing on two study regions in the eastern Brazilian Amazon, we used a trait-based approach to examine how seed dispersal functionality within tropical plant communities changes across a landscape-scale gradient of human modification, including both regenerating secondary forests and primary forests disturbed by burning and selective logging.
3. Surveys of 230 forest plots recorded 26,533 live stems from 846 tree species. Using herbarium material and literature, we compiled trait information for each tree species, focusing on dispersal mode and seed size.
4. Disturbance reduced tree diversity and increased the proportion of...