Bat- and bird-generated seed rains at isolated trees in pastures in a tropical rainforest

Bats are abundant and effective seed dispersers inside the forest, but what happens when a forest is fragmented and transformed into pasture? The land scape at Los Tuxtlas, Mexico, originally rainforest, is greatly fragmented and covered with pastures. We analyzed the seed rains produced by frugivoro us bats and birds under isolated trees in pastures in the fragmented landsc ape and the contribution of this process to vegetational recovery. We surve yed bats and obtained fecal samples under isolated trees in pastures. We al so collected seed rain below the canopy of 10 isolated Ficus trees, separat ing nocturnally dispersed seeds from diurnally dispersed seeds. We caught 6 52 bats of 20 species; 83% of captures were frugivores. The most abundant s pecies were Sturnira lilium (48%), Artibeus jamaicensis (18%), Carollia per spicillata (12%), and Dermanura tolteca (11%). Fecal samples contained seed s of 19 species in several families: Piperaceae (50%), Moraceae (25%), Sola nacea (12%), Cecropiaceae (10%), and others (3%). Sturnira lilium was the m ost important disperser bat in pastures. Seed rain was dominated by zoochor ous species (89%). We found seed diversity between day and night seed captu res to be comparable, but we found a significant interaction of disperser t ype (bird or bat) with season. Seven plant species accounted for 79% of the seed rain: Piper auritum (23%), Ficus (hemiepiphytic-strangler tree) spp. (17%), Cecropia obtusifolia (10%), P. amalago (10%), Ficus (free-standing t ree) spp. (8%), P. yzabalanum (6%), and Solanum rudepanum (5%). Bats and bi rds are important seed dispersers in pastures because they disperse seeds o f pioneer and primary species (trees, shrubs, herbs, and epiphytes), connec t forest fragments, and maintain plant diversity. Consequently, they might contribute to the recovery of woody vegetation in disturbed areas in tropic al humid forests.