Forest dependent birds are the main frugivorous species in mutualistic networks from the Brazilian Cerrado

Not all frugivore species are equally important to the structure and maintenance of mutualistic networks and identifying the most relevant species is of great relevance to conservation ecology. Centrality metrics provide insightful information on the relative contribution of individual fruit-eating species to the topology of the networks, but there is still considerable debate on what ecological traits make frugivores highly central. We aimed to identify whether frugivory level, gape width, and forest dependency are associated with the importance of fruit-eating birds to the networks. The relative contribution of individual bird species to the networks was calculated using a combination of three centrality metrics. A mixed-effects model showed that central species in the networks were highly connected forest specialist birds. Gape width and the proportion of fruits in the diet did not explain centrality. These findings are concerning because these birds we found to be the most important species are usually highly sensitive to human disturbances and because their selective defaunation may breakdown plant-frugivore mutualistic networks. Therefore, we suggest that the conservation of seed dispersal networks in forest fragments of the Cerrado should consider protecting forest specialized frugivorous birds.