title: Pollination and seed dispersal are the most threatened processes of plant regeneration.
abstract: Plant regeneration is essential for maintaining forest biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, which are globally threatened by human disturbance. Here we present the first integrative meta-analysis on how forest disturbance affects multiple ecological processes of plant regeneration including pollination, seed dispersal, seed predation, recruitment and herbivory. We analysed 408 pairwise comparisons of these processes between near-natural and disturbed forests. Human impacts overall reduced plant regeneration. Importantly, only processes early in the regeneration cycle that often depend on plant-animal interactions, i.e. pollination and seed dispersal, were negatively affected. Later processes, i.e. seed predation, recruitment and herbivory, showed overall no significant response to human disturbance. Conserving pollination and seed dispersal, including the animals that provide these services to plants, should become a priority in forest conservation efforts globally.
authors.affiliation: Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre Frankfurt, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Eike Lena
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Neuschulz
authors.affiliation: Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre Frankfurt, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.|Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Fachbereich Biowissenschaften, Max-von-Laue-Str. 9, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.affiliation: Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre Frankfurt, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schleuning
authors.affiliation: Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre Frankfurt, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.|Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Fachbereich Biowissenschaften, Max-von-Laue-Str. 9, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Katrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Böhning-Gaese
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017753:Ecosystem; D065928:Forests; D060434:Herbivory / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena; D054817:Pollination / Q000502:physiology*; D058614:Seed Dispersal / Q000502:physiology*