RESUMO
Unfortunately, the detailed description of the ESM material went wrong in the published version of the dataset.
RESUMO
One of the major challenges in ecology is to understand the relative importance of neutral- and niche-based processes structuring species interactions within communities. The concept of neutral-based processes posits that network structure is a result of interactions between species based on their abundance. On the other hand, niche-based processes presume that network structure is shaped by constraints to interactions. Here, we evaluated the relative importance of neutral-based process, represented by species' abundance (A) and fruit production (F) models, and niche-based process, represented by spatial overlap (S), temporal overlap (T) and morphological barrier (M) models, in shaping the structure of a bird-seed dispersal network from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We evaluated the ability of each model, singly or in combination, to predict the general structure [represented by connectance, nestedness (NODF), weight nestedness (WNODF), interaction evenness and complementary specialization] and microstructure of the network (i.e., the frequency of pairwise interactions). Only nestedness (both NODF and WNODF) was predicted by at least one model. NODF and WNODF were predicted by a neutral-based process (A), by a combination of niche-based processes (ST and STM) and by both neutral- and niche-based processes (AM). NODF was also predicted by F and FM model. Regarding microstructure, temporal overlap (T) was the most parsimonious model able to predict it. Our findings reveal that a combination of neutral- and niche-based processes is a good predictor of the general structure (NODF and WNODF) of the bird-seed dispersal network and a niche-based process is the best predictor of the network's microstructure.