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Abstract Incorporating the perception and attitudes of key stakeholders into conservation management can contribute to biodiversity conservation and has the potential to resolve human-wildlife conflicts. To this end, there is scope to enhance conservation outcomes by improving the capture and analysis of stakeholders perceptions and translating these into the management decision making process. Here, an ecosystem services approach (i.e. the benefits people obtain from nature) is used to assess the societal benefits derived from a specialized and rare behavior exhibited by bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus gephyreus) that cooperatively forage with artisanal fishers in Laguna, southern Brazil. From interviews, we identified ecosystem services based on the perception of artisanal fishers who take part in this interaction. The perceived benefits of cooperative fishing with dolphins, identified from these interviews, were grouped into eight ecosystem services assigned into cultural (n = 7) and provisioning (n = 1) related services. The results showed that experienced fishers were more likely to identify multiple and diverse ecosystem services, while fishers exposed to tourists tended to focus on tourism and recreation leisure as benefits from fishing with dolphins. Our findings show that the human component is a key element in this system and support the proposal that future conservation decisions and management plans of Laguna's bottlenose dolphins should involve artisanal fishers to be more effective. Our findings indicate that an ecosystem services approach could help decision-makers to better integrate social, economic and cultural aspects of human-wildlife interactions into conservation and management strategies for wildlife in a wider context. Highlights • We interviewed 53 fishers who engage in cooperative fishing with dolphins. • Fishers perceived eight ecosystem services related to the cooperative fishing. • Fishers perceived economic, cultural and social benefits of fishing with dolphins. • Experienced fishers are more likely to identify ecosystem services. • Decision makers should engage fishers in management and conservation plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The quintessential plant of the Brazilian highlands — Araucaria (pinhão) — is paramount to vertebrates. • Pinhão exhibit low temporal redundancy, low consumer specificity, high reliability and abundance. • Araucaria behave as a keystone plant resource in the subtropical Atlantic Forest. Ecological attributes enable the identification of Keystone Plant Resources (KPRs), including their community-wide contribution to vertebrate consumers, which are often highly threatened in terrestrial ecosystems. KPRs have been defined by intersecting four ecological attributes that influence local communities of vertebrate frugivores: temporal redundancy (TR); degree of consumer specificity (CS); reliability (RR); and resource abundance (RA). The conifer Araucaria angustifolia (Bert.) O. Kuntze (Araucaria) is the main arborescent component of Araucaria Forests, within the subtropical Atlantic Forest of South America. The large Araucaria seeds (pinhão) are heavily consumed by local faunas, and consequently could be automatically defined as a KPR. However, no previous studies have conceptually assessed the pinhão as a KPR based on their ecological attributes and trophic interactions with vertebrates. Using empirical data and a comprehensive literature review, we examine the degree to which Araucaria trees can be formally defined as a KPR within the subtropical Atlantic Forest. Our results show for the first time that Araucaria is a KPR according to both its ecological attributes and community-wide importance. Araucaria cones exhibited low temporal redundancy, low consumer specificity, high resource reliability and high resource abundance, structuring the associated vertebrate consumers spatiotemporally. Our insights contribute to understanding the implications of historical Araucaria population declines through logging and deforestation, as well as ongoing vertebrate defaunation. Both of these processes can lead to changes in baseline ecological process (e.g. seed dispersal versus seed predation), forest regeneration, community reassembly, and potential evolutionary consequences such as seed downsizing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mammals play innumerous ecological functions in terrestrial ecosystems and are in decline in the Atlantic Forest. Using a biogeography approach with tools to analyze metacommunities, this study aimed to understand how mammal diversity would vary spatiotemporally across the Atlantic Forest. Secondary data about mammal communities was obtained using search engines. A nestedness analysis and spatial autocorrelations were used to evaluate the spatial patterns of richness. Metacommunity models were used based on species-neutral diversity to measure partitioning and estimate and compare diversity at different spatial and temporal scales, and regression models were made to evaluate the diversity variation obtained in relation to biogeographical predictors. The richness of mammals had intermediary nestedness and a spatial autocorrelation. We obtained high beta diversity for the entire Atlantic Forest, which was similar to simulated values and decreased at smaller spatial and temporal scales. The diversity of medium- to large-bodied mammals along the Atlantic Forest is composed of a nested summary of local to regional diversities, yet the tropical region was very important to the composition of the overall diversity. The different multiscale approaches and results may contribute to better understanding the diversity of medium- to large-bodied mammal communities and how they vary in the Atlantic Forest. Both the neutral paradigm and other metacommunity paradigms have complementary strengths in species diversity at several scales. We conclude that conservation strategies should consider all scales in the Atlantic Forest, because the diversity of mammals is dependent both the local and regional pool of mammals. Some of the most important standing issues are to find out whether dispersal across regional landscapes occurs for most species and, if it does, to ensure that this is maintained or increased, to maintain species diversity and ecological processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Population structure of the keystone species araucaria is influenced by habitat type. • Type of land management also affects araucaria population structure. • Fire and grazing can increase araucaria seedling number. • Under fire and grazing, seedlings scarcely reach latter stages of development. • Fire and grazing reduce the pace of forest growth over shrublands and grasslands. Disturbances caused by land management via fire and cattle grazing can alter the population structure of keystone species that change the output of vegetation dynamics. Adult araucaria trees (Araucaria angustifolia) can facilitate the establishment of other woody plants and, thus, influence the expansion of forests over grasslands in the highlands of southern Brazil. Here we aimed to check araucaria population structure under two types of management – with or without fire and grazing– and in three habitat types: forests, shrublands and grasslands. We sampled araucaria populations in 40 transects (100×4 m), half of each located in the forest, and the other half, in variable extensions of shrublands or grasslands. Of the 40 transects, 18 were under management with fire and grazing and 22 in a protected area where the two disturbances are prevented (São Joaquim National Park). Overall, we sampled 339 araucaria seedlings, 59 saplings, 44 juveniles and 128 adults. Population structure differed both among habitats, between types of management, and between the same habitats but under distinct types of management. Population density was 1.4 times higher in areas with fire and grazing than without such disturbances, which was caused mostly by a larger number of seedlings. Under fire and grazing, we found 1.4 times more adults in forests, 5.7 times more seedlings in shrublands and 5.3 times more seedlings in the grassland than in the same habitat but without disturbances. Our results indicate that araucarias reach and germinate under all conditions but rarely surpass the seedling stage in grasslands and shrublands where fire and grazing is used. Consequently, fire and grazing disturbances should slow down forest expansion over shrublands and grasslands. In contrast, when disturbances are barred, araucarias can grow large enough to trigger their facilitative effect and then gear up the pace of forest expansion. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding spatiotemporal patterns of species distributions and their determinants is paramount in ecology. Here, we explore the relationship between the diversity of surviving mammals and two of the main alimentary resources (araucaria seeds and feijoa fruits) across the Araucaria Forest (FOM) in South America. First, we investigated the influence of landscape and environment on the species distribution and pulse of forest productivity. Then, we evaluated how these spatiotemporal pulses in resource availability influence the mammalian diversity. We analyzed the data via diversity descriptors, Morisita index and multiple regressions. Our findings highlighted that climate, tree density, and other environmental variables explained the pulses of productivity. Mammalian diversity of first-order consumers mammals—all those immediately feeding on seeds and fruits—was partially related to resource pulses. Our results revealed that the pulses of forest resources can influence mammal diversity over the years, including delayed responses and asynchronous oscillations. The integrity of vegetal elements of the FOM is key to maintain several mammal-mediated ecological processes. Maintaining the viability of tree populations, encouraging the sustainable use of non-timber resources, and promoting the conservation of the mammalian fauna, which is undergoing an unprecedented diversity crisis worldwide, can help to preserve the remaining ecological processes. Unlabelled Image • We explore the relation between mammal diversity and Araucaria Forest resources. • Our findings showed multiple niche variables explaining resources pulses. • The pulses influence diversity over years with delayed responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We use mathematical modelling to evaluate scenarios of frugivory. • We based our study on a fleshy-fruited plant and relictual vertebrates biota. • Our main results derived from simulation depends on species diversity and body size. Universal features of ecological processes have mathematical properties that are naturally nonlinear and intricate, hitherto oftentimes approximated only by mathematical equations. We aimed to evaluate via mathematical modeling different scenarios of productivity and frugivory of Acca sellowiana (Feijoa) by vertebrates in the highlands of the subtropical Atlantic Forest. In doing so, based on an empirical baseline of mutualistic interactions, we simulated defaunation, species reintroduction and variations in resource production to understand the spatiotemporal dynamics of interactions within the network. We utilized empirical data of interactions obtained via camera traps from 2015 to 2016. We performed frugivory simulations based on the use of predator-prey models with the addition of exponential, logistical and structured growth. We evaluated 13 deterministic and stochastic models of frugivory and numerically compared the fruits removal rates among the models and empirical data. We conducted a weighted network formality analysis evaluating the general topology of networks, and a niche overlaps analysis of each scenario, to understand the variation in resource-sharing dynamics. Our results showed that vertebrates underexploited the potential of Feijoa as a subjacent resource, showing that the available fruits exceed the demand of local biota. The network robustness can be significantly changed by species loss or by rewilding. However, in all scenarios, resource-sharing is less than expected. The hypothetical removal by frugivores promote non-random negative effects in the potential seed dispersal process, whereas the increase of frugivores that may improve the reproductive success of Feijoa. Our insights allowed us to evaluate the magnitude of different scenarios of frugivory and to provide contributions to increase understanding of the relationship between fruit-eating and fleshy-fruited plants. Our results can be used as a proxy for conservation and management plans to predict ecological dynamics applying a species interaction perspective. Moreover, can be used to resources and landscapes management, especially in a region under an overwhelming contemporary defaunation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]