Data from: Toucans provide resilience against seed dispersal limitation to a large-seeded tree (Virola surinamensis) in a human-modified landscape

Large-seeded plants may suffer seed dispersal limitation in human-modified landscapes if seed dispersers are extirpated or are unable to maintain high provisioning of seed dispersal services. We investigate if the large-seeded tree Virola surinamensis suffers seed dispersal limitation in a human-modified landscape in southern Costa Rica. During two fruiting seasons we monitored crop size, seed removal rates, the number of fruiting conspecifics within 100m and feeding visits rates by frugivores at trees located in high and low forest disturbance conditions. Seed removal rates and the total number of seeds removed were high regardless of disturbance level, but these parameters increased with tree crop size and decreased with the number of fruiting V. surinamensis trees within a 100 m radius. Trees at low disturbance levels were more likely to be visited by seed dispersers. Toucans (Ramphastos ambiguus) and spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) were the most important seed dispersers based on visitation patterns and seed removal rates. Spider monkeys feeding visits were higher at high disturbance levels, but visited few trees with large crops and low number of fruiting Virola trees within 100 m. Toucan visitation patterns were not constrained by any of the predictors and they visited trees equally across the landscape. We suggest that isolated and highly fecund Virola trees are important feeding resources for spider monkeys in human-modified landscapes and that toucans can provide resilience against seed dispersal limitation for large-seeded plants in human-modified landscapes in the absence of hunting.