美国马里兰大学Evan C. Fricke等研究人员揭示动物丧失对植物跟随气候变化能力的影响。相关论文于2022年1月13日发表于国际学术期刊《科学》。

研究人员开发了基于性状模型来预测全球动物-植物间匹配的相互作用和传播功能。 将引入物种相互作用作为未来新型种子传播网络中相互作用的可观察参数，研究人员发现了该模型具有强大的预测功能。研究人员保守估计，哺乳动物和鸟类丧失已经使全球植物跟随气候变化的能力降低了60%。植物通过范围转移来适应气候变化的能力发生了强烈降低，这显示出破坏植被复原力的动物丧失和气候变化之间的协同作用。

据悉，约一半的植物需要依靠动物来传播它们的种子。种子散布的相互作用在动物丧失后失去，并在新的群落重建过程中获得，这些会影响到植物是否能通过迁移适应气候变化。

附：英文原文

Title: The effects of defaunation on plants’ capacity to track climate change

Author: Evan C. Fricke, Alejandro Ordonez, Haldre S. Rogers, Jens-Christian Svenning

Issue&Volume: 2022-01-14

Abstract: Half of all plant species rely on animals to disperse their seeds. Seed dispersal interactions lost through defaunation and gained during novel community assembly influence whether plants can adapt to climate change through migration. We develop trait-based models to predict pairwise interactions and dispersal function for fleshy-fruited plants globally. Using interactions with introduced species as an observable proxy for interactions in future novel seed dispersal networks, we find strong potential to forecast their assembly and functioning. We conservatively estimate that mammal and bird defaunation has already reduced the capacity of plants to track climate change by 60% globally. This strong reduction in the ability of plants to adapt to climate change through range shifts shows a synergy between defaunation and climate change that undermines vegetation resilience.

DOI: abk3510

Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk3510