The "neglected sense" in primate-plant interactions: do olfactory signals define a mammalian seed dispersal syndrome in the tropics?

• Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Manfred Ayasse; Professor Dr. Eckhard W. Heymann
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Ökologie und Biodiversität der Tiere und Ökosysteme, Organismische Interaktionen
• Förderung: Förderung von 2012 bis 2014
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 222126267

Traditionally, considerations of the factors mediating the mutualistic interactions between fruiting plants and their frugivorous seed dispersers (signals provided by plants and identified by dispersers) were confined mainly to fruit physical traits and, although not without criticism, were used to define discrete “dispersal syndromes”. Recent studies have been providing growing evidence for the importance of a yet neglected aspect in plant-frugivore interactions: the chemical domain. This joins a growing understanding that primates, a major frugivore guild and important seed dispersers in the tropics, possess olfactory abilities more elaborated than previously thought. It thus seems that the chemical domain may be an important mediator in the interactions between primates and plants. To test this, the planned project will employ an interdisciplinary approach in a Neotropical system in which tamarin monkeys are a major mammalian disperser. The chemical signatures of representative fruit model will be analyzed and field experiments will examine the behavior these signals directly elicit among wild tamarins. By analyzing these fruits’ main dispersers and their physical characteristics, the project is expected to critically reexamine the syndrome hypothesis and introduce the chemical aspect, thus sharpening our understanding of both proximate mechanisms and evolutionary processes behind animal-plant ecological interactions. Key words: animal-plant mutualism; chemical communication; fruit aroma; primate olfaction; seed dispersal

• DFG-Verfahren: Sachbeihilfen