Data from: The distribution of plants and seed dispersers in response to habitat fragmentation in an artificial island archipelago

Aim: Small, old-growth forest fragments generally have more small-seeded
plants than large patches, due to the disappearance of large seed
dispersing vertebrates. This pattern may differ for secondary forest
fragments where differential migration ability rather than persistence of
seed dispersers may be driving plant community assembly. In this paper, we
investigated the effect of habitat fragmentation on seed dispersers and
plant community structure in regenerating forests. Location: The Thousand
Island Lake, China. Taxon: Plants, birds and mammals. Methods: We compiled
diversity and abundance data for birds and mammals on islands in the
Thousand Island Lake, China. We also surveyed the secondary plant
communities and measured seed dispersal traits. Results:
Community-weighted mean seed size of woody plants decreased with island
size. This pattern was related to compositional difference of the
dispersers. We found that mammal diversity and abundance was only weakly
or not related to island size; whereas bird diversity and abundance
increased strongly with island size. Density of bird-dispersed plants was
significantly positively related with island size. Since birds tend to
disperse smaller seeds than mammals, the trend in seed size may have been
a consequence of the shift in relative abundance of the two disperser
guilds. Main Conclusions: Differential responses of seed dispersers to
habitat fragmentation may lead to pervasive shifts in the plant community
structure of regenerating forest fragments. Our study highlights the
importance of keeping large continuous forests in order to retain mammals
and their dispersal capabilities.