Gallegos et al. 2014 Secondary dispersal by ants promotes forest regeneration after deforestation

We studied the effects of secondary dispersal on seed predation, germination and seedling recruitment of the primarily bird-dispersed tree Clusia trochiformis in a tropical montane forest in Bolivia. We carried out exclosure experiments that allowed or excluded access to seeds by vertebrates in three habitat types (forest interior, degraded habitat close to and degraded habitat far from the forest margin) in a spatial block design at six sites. We offered a total of 1,440 seeds (both with and without an aril) and marked half of them with a thread to follow their fate after 48 h and after 1 month.