Defaunation increases clustering and fine-scale spatial genetic structure in a small-seeded palm despite remaining small-bodied frugivores

Anthropogenic pressures such as hunting are increasingly driving the localized functional extinctions of large- and medium-sized wildlife in tropical forests, a phenomenon broadly termed ‘defaunation’. Concurrently in these areas, smaller-bodied species benefit from factors such as competitive release and increase in numbers. This transformation of the wildlife community can impact species interactions and ecosystem services such as seed dispersal and seed-mediated geneflow with far reaching consequences. Evidence for negative genetic effects following defaunation is well-documented in large-seeded plants that require large frugivores for long distance seed dispersal. However, how defaunation affects plants with small or medium-small seeds (< 1.5cm), which tend to be consumed and dispersed by frugivorous mutualists of a range of body-sizes and responses to anthropogenic threats, is not well understood. To better understand defaunation’s impacts on tropical plant communities, we inves..., , , # Data from: Defaunation increases clustering and fine-scale spatial genetic structure in a small-seeded palm despite remaining small-bodied frugivores

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.wwpzgmsv6](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.wwpzgmsv6)

These data are used in Lamperty et al 2024, Molecular Ecology, entitled \"Defaunation increases clustering and fine-scale spatial genetic structure in a small-seeded palm despite remaining small-bodied frugivores\".

This study investigated the effects of defaunation and reductions in local frugivore abundances on seed-dispersal services and seed-mediated gene flow for a relatively small-seeded palm species, Euterpe precatoria. In 3 different sites in Madre de Dios, Peru (located in the western Amazon Basin) that varied in exposure to hunting, we mapped the location of all seedling (< 1 m tall) and adult ( > 10cm diameter at breast height) E. precatoria within long-term 4-ha forest study plots. For each E. precatoria found, we recorded their height a...