Subannual phenology and the effect of staggered fruit ripening on dispersal competition

Seed dispersal mutualisms evolve in complex communities of plants and frugivorous animals, within which indirect interactions such as competition and facilitation can occur. Many tropical plants reproduce subannually in multiple episodes per year. Yet, the consequences of episodic reproduction on interactions with seed dispersers remains largely unexplored. We studied Guarea guidonia (Meliaceae), a subannually reproducting tree, to examine temporal variation in seed dispersal within a tropical forested landscape in the central Dominican Republic. We hypothesized that foraging by seed dispersers would (a) increase with daily ripe fruit set on focal trees, (b) decrease with increasing ripe fruit biomass of neighboring plants, and (c) decrease in response to the fruiting periods of other taxa at the landscape scale. Over 18 months, we tracked the phenology of 24 focal trees and quantified foraging during fruiting phases through repeated observations, simultenously measuring seed dispersal ...