Reacción a "Europe faces a seed dispersal crisis due to changes in animal populations"

This is the first comprehensive study on the vulnerability of seed-dispersing species. The authors have compiled an extensive database of 11,414 interactions between 1,902 plant species and 455 seed-dispersing animal species, including 283 birds, 85 arthropods, 69 mammals, 11 reptiles, 4 mollusks, 2 fish, and 1 annelid worm. These data represent the network of plant-disperser interactions on a European scale.

Interactions between species are responsible for many of the functions and ecosystem services that nature provides us. The vulnerability of seed-dispersing species directly affects the dispersal of species, their establishment, and growth. The loss of the dispersal function also reduces the recovery capacity of ecosystems, which is a key factor in light of the recent approval of the European Restoration Law.

It is important to note that information about population trends is more detailed for certain species, generally those with higher socioeconomic value, broad geographical distribution, and larger body size. For many other species, there is a lack of data on their populations and, therefore, on their vulnerability. Thus, the results of this study may be underestimating the vulnerability of seed-dispersing species as well as the dispersal function.