Data from: Seed dispersal syndromes in the Madagascan flora: the unusual importance of primates

Madagascar is one of the most threatened biodiversity hotspots, and protection of its biodiversity is becoming increasingly urgent as deforestation of the island continues. For the long-term success of conservation efforts it is essential that key ecological processes, such as seed dispersal, are protected and restored. Therefore, the identification of ecological gaps is a vital task. For Madagascar, only little is known about plant–animal interactions, and traditional methods of ecological research are too time-consuming to provide crucial information about breakdowns in these interactions. To identify likely dispersal gaps we therefore used a theoretical approach to analyse plant–disperser interactions in Madagascar. We used data science tools to impute missing data on relevant plant traits to subsequently predict the most likely dispersal agents for each of Madagascar’s endemic plant species. We found that 38% of the endemic species (N = 8,784) are endozoochorous, and among these 26–41% display a primate syndrome and 17–19% a bird syndrome (depending on the definition of syndromes). This lower percentage of endozoochorous species and higher percentage of species with a primate syndrome in Madagascar compared to other tropical areas reflects the unusual disperser guild on the island. Only five bird species but 20 lemur species are frugivorous, and 16 of those lemur species are currently threatened with extinction. The disappearance of frugivorous lemurs would significantly change the vegetation dynamics of Madagascar’s ecosystems, and a high proportion of Madagascar’s endemic plants would enter an extinction vortex.马达加斯加是全球受威胁最为严重的生物多样性热点（biodiversity hotspot）之一，随着该岛屿的森林砍伐持续进行，其生物多样性保护工作的紧迫性正与日俱增。若要保障保护工作取得长期成效，必须对种子传播（seed dispersal）等关键生态过程予以保护与修复。因此，识别生态缺口是一项至关重要的任务。目前针对马达加斯加的动植物相互作用研究仍较为匮乏，而传统生态学研究方法耗时过长，无法及时获取这些相互作用发生崩溃的关键信息。为识别潜在的传播生态缺口，我们采用理论分析方法对马达加斯加的植物-传播者互作网络展开研究：借助数据科学工具对相关植物性状的缺失数据进行插补，随后针对马达加斯加每一种特有植物的最可能传播媒介进行预测。研究结果显示，在共计8784种特有植物中，有38%为经动物消化道传播（endozoochorous）的物种；在该类物种中，26%~41%表现出灵长类传播综合征（primate syndrome），17%~19%表现出鸟类传播综合征（bird syndrome，综合征定义不同则占比存在小幅差异）。相较于其他热带区域，马达加斯加的经动物消化道传播植物占比更低，而带有灵长类传播综合征的物种占比更高，这一现象反映出该岛屿独特的传播者功能群（disperser guild）组成：岛上仅存5种食果鸟类，却拥有20种食果狐猴，其中16种狐猴目前已处于受灭绝威胁的状态。食果狐猴的消失将显著改变马达加斯加生态系统的植被动态，而占比颇高的马达加斯加特有植物将随之陷入灭绝漩涡（extinction vortex）。