Data from: Landscape structure mediates zoochorous-dispersed seed rain under isolated pasture trees across distinct tropical regions

Context: Isolated pasture trees play an important role in forest recovery
within fragmented tropical landscapes by attracting seed dispersers and
facilitating seedling growth. However, studies with conflicting results
have led to confusion about what drives variation in zoochorous-dispersed
seed rain patterns under isolated tree canopies. Objectives: To assess the
role of landscape and biological factors impacting zoochorous-dispersed
seed rain under isolated pasture trees across three tropical regions of
the world. Methods: We measured seed dispersal under 144 isolated pasture
trees found in 12 fragmented tropical and sub-tropical landscapes in
Australia, Colombia and Nigeria. Using linear mixed effect models, we
modeled seed diversity, abundance, richness and evenness as functions of
the biological features and landscape context of isolated trees. Results:
Throughout all regions, the amount of woody vegetation surrounding trees
in pastures was negatively related to rainforest seed diversity, evenness
and abundance. Seed diversity and evenness increased significantly with
the distance of isolated trees to forest fragments in the Australian
sub-tropics, but elsewhere, seed diversity and evenness tended to decline
with distance to forest, though not significantly. Conclusions: Our
results suggest that the tree composition of landscapes surrounding
isolated pasture trees is important for influencing zoochorous-dispersed
seed rain, regardless of the region studied. Our study highlights the
prominent role of landscape-scale, rather than local-scale factors on seed
dispersal to isolated pasture trees, while providing strong evidence that
early stage successional processes involving isolated pasture trees are
similar throughout global tropical regions.