Data: Prescribed fire enhances seed removal by ants in a Neotropical savanna

Seed dispersal and predation by animals often drive plant regeneration. In tropical savannas, such as the Cerrado of Brazil, fire is also a key process in ecosystem dynamics, consuming the lower vegetation strata and killing wildlife, but how fire affects seed-animal interactions is virtually unknown. We investigated the effects of prescribed fires on the removal of diaspores from Miconia rubiginosa and sunflower Helianthus annuus in Cerrado from southeast Brazil. Using plots burned one month or one year before sampling and unburned controls, we assessed the effect of prescribed fire on microhabitat structure and diaspore removal by vertebrates and ants. Covered microhabitats experienced higher seed removal by vertebrates than open microhabitats, but microhabitat features did not influence seed removal by ants. Prescribed fire did not change the total amount of seed removal, and ants were responsible for most removals in burned and control plots. However, fire increased the importance o...动物介导的种子扩散与捕食行为，往往是驱动植物种群更新的核心过程。在以巴西塞拉多（Cerrado）为代表的热带稀树草原生态系统中，火亦是调控生态系统动态的关键过程之一——其可焚毁下层植被、致死野生动物，但目前学界几乎尚未明确火如何影响种子-动物互作关系。本研究以巴西东南部塞拉多生态系统为研究区域，探究了计划火烧（prescribed fire）对锈毛野牡丹（Miconia rubiginosa）与向日葵（Helianthus annuus）传播体（diaspore）移除率的影响。我们设置了采样前1个月、采样前1年火烧的样地，以及未火烧的对照样地，以此评估计划火烧对微生境结构，以及脊椎动物与蚂蚁对传播体的移除行为的影响。相较于开阔微生境，覆被型微生境中脊椎动物对种子的移除率更高，但微生境特征并未对蚂蚁的种子移除行为产生显著影响。计划火烧并未改变种子移除的总发生率，且在火烧样地与对照样地中，蚂蚁均为种子移除的主要贡献类群。然而，火烧提升了