Inequalities in intraspecific plant-lemur interactions drive seed dispersal patterns

Biotic interactions occur between individuals and accumulate to shape species-level interaction structure across a community. Skewed interaction structures, where a few individuals are highly connected and most have few interactions, are increasingly identified at the individual-level. However, how individual-level interactions accumulate to shape species-level interaction outcomes remains unclear. We studied the interactions of three frugivorous lemur species (Varecia variegata editorum, Eulemur rufifrons, and Eulemur rubriventer) with individual plants within a defined area of 4km2. We examined the consistency of skewed patterns across time, lemur species, and plant species; compared individual- and species-level network structure; investigated the intrinsic (DBH and fruit crop size) and extrinsic (fruit availability and richness) factors affecting interaction structure; and tested interaction structure impact on seed dispersal. We found a substantial and consistent skew in the intera..., Fieldwork took place in the Valohoaka research area within Ranomafana National Park (RNP) in southeastern Madagascar. Ranomafana National Park is composed of protected montane rainforest with an elevation ranging from 600 – 1500 m (Wright and Andriamihaja 2002) and yearly rainfall averaging 2835mm (monthly averages 10-1200mm) (Dunham, Erhart, and Wright 2011). Our field site was a 2,000 X 2,000 m (4 km2) forest section where previous observations of all three focal lemur species (Eulemur rufifrons, Eulemur rubriventer and Varecia Variegata editorum) facilitated access to habituated populations (Razafindratsima, Jones, and Dunham 2014; Tonos et al. 2021). These frugivorous lemur species are known to play a substantial role as seed dispersers for the native plant community, which is composed of at least 330 plant species (Razafindratsima and Dunham 2015).
Data collection took place from June 2022 through December 2023, and was organized in expeditions of 11 days each. During these expedit..., , # Inequalities in intraspecific plant-lemur interactions drive seed dispersal patterns

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.sxksn03b4](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sxksn03b4)

## Description of the data and file structure

These data describe the interactions of individual plants with lemur frugivores who consume their fruit collected using direct observations. The dataset describes the number of times each of three lemur species visited a plant individual within the Valo research area in Ranomafana National Park.

### Files and variables

#### File: FAME_code.Rmd

**Description:** R code used for all statistical analysis done for this project. Each of the data files in this repository are formatted for specific analysis and can be identified by the document name, and the object name within the code. 

#### File: individual_plants.csv

**Description:** 

##### Variables

* plant_id: Individual plant identification made from a combination of species name and tree tag. Each plant individual may..., , **Changes after Nov 5, 2024:** Updated files to enable easy analysis replication