Supporting data and code for Mendes et al. 2024 Evidence of a European seed dispersal crisis

Supporting data and code for Mendes et al. 2024 Evidence of a European seed dispersal crisis<b>Abstract</b>Seed dispersal is crucial for ecosystem persistence, especially in fragmented landscapes, such as those common in Europe. Ongoing defaunation might compromise effective seed dispersal, but the conservation status of pairwise interactions remains unknown. With a literature review, we reconstructed the first European-wide seed dispersal network and evaluated interactions’ conservation status by assessing each interacting partner’s IUCN conservation status and population trends. We found that a third of the disperser species and interactions face potential extinction and that 30% of the plant species have most of their dispersers threatened or declining. While our study clearly reveals a developing seed dispersal crisis across all European biomes, it also highlights large knowledge gaps regarding the dispersers of most European zoochorous plants, as well as their conservation status, urging further scrutiny and action to conserve the seed dispersal service.