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Birds at geographic range edges more closely match fruit size to their beaks, especially specialists. This dietary optimization increases under stressful conditions, influencing frugivore interactions and trait matching predictions.

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Animal Behavior
  • Evolutionary Biology

Background:

  • Animals adjust diets for optimal nutrient and energy intake.
  • Dietary optimization, like matching fruit size to beak size in birds, enhances consumption efficiency.
  • Environmental stress may intensify the need for dietary optimization.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To test if dietary optimization, measured by fruit-beak size matching, intensifies under stressful conditions at species' range edges.
  • To investigate how environmental stress influences frugivore-fruit interactions and trait matching predictability.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized fruit consumption and trait data from 97 frugivorous bird species and 831 plant species globally.
  • Analyzed the relationship between fruit size and bird beak size across different geographic locations.
  • Compared dietary matching patterns between species at their range limits versus core areas.

Main Results:

  • Birds exhibited stronger fruit-beak size matching at their geographic range limits, indicating increased dietary optimization under stress.
  • This pattern was more pronounced in highly frugivorous bird species compared to opportunistic frugivores.
  • Opportunistic frugivores did not show a significant tendency for closer size matching at range edges.

Conclusions:

  • Dietary trait matching is context-dependent and influenced by environmental stress, particularly at species' range edges.
  • Frugivore-fruit interactions are shaped by stress, leading to intensified selection for optimal resource use in specialists.
  • Trait matching alone may not consistently predict resource use in ecological interactions, especially for generalist species.