Abstract: Bird-seed dispersal network is a key factor for biodiversity maintenance and ecosystem function, which is also a hot topic in ecological research. From October to December 2021, we used line transects to investigate the correlation between the diversity of foraging birds and plant traits at the southern region of Meihuashan National Nature Reserve in Fujian. Based on foraging behavior of birds, we built seed dispersal network of birds to explore the impacts of bird traits on the network structure. The results showed that there was a correlation between the diversity of foraging birds and plant traits. The species number, population size, and Pielou index of foraging birds were significantly correlated with tree height, fruit amount, and canopy density (P<0.05). The seed dispersal network consisted of 21 bird species and 15 plant species, with nestedness and modularity. Low degrees of connectivity and specialization were found in the network. There was a certain correlation between bird traits and species level network metrics. For foraging birds, species number had significant positive correlations with species degree, species strength, and partner diversity (P<0.01). There were significant positive correlations between body mass, body length, and bill length with species degree and partner diversity, respectively (P<0.05). Our results suggest that bird traits played an important role in the structure of seed dispersal network, which provided an empirical evidence for the dynamics and stability of animal-plant interactions in forest.

Key words: foraging bird, network structure, plant trait, bird trait.