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Muchas gracias, amigos!

Muchas gracias Miguel!

🧵 8/8 The mechanistic models of seed dispersal were developed in close collaboration with Juan M. Morales in Scotland and Spain.
This research was funded by the MIGRANTSEEDS project.
The paper was wonderfully led by @cabracho-estevanez.bsky.social as part of his PhD thesis.

🧵 7/n GPS tracking of birds involved numerous field campaigns between 2019 and 2023 in Cádiz (Spain), Helgoland (Germany), Falsterbo (Sweden), and Ventės Ragas (Lithuania). This was possible thanks to bird ringers and ringing stations (Vogelwarte Helgoland, Falsterbo Fågelstation and Ventės Ragas).

🧵 6/n But, due to their longer retention times, plant species with smaller seeds have a greater capacity to be dispersed by migratory flights and over longer distances. So, apart from fruiting phenology (doi.org/10.1038/s415...), seed size is a key trait that helps plants track rapid climate change.

🧵 5/n Our study reveals the ability of migrant frugivorous birds to (re)distribute plant species. Their role as long-distance seed dispersers may help explain past changes in plant distributions and the colonization of oceanic islands, and could be crucial for plants in fragmented landscapes.

🧵 4/n Song thrushes can disperse seeds over tens or even hundreds of km during their migration, depending on the plant species (maximum distances ranged from 58 km to 521 km). Conversely, seed dispersal distances mediated by non-migratory movements were typically shorter than 1 km.

🧵 3/n Here, we studied the seed dispersal capacity of the song thrush (Turdus philomelos) by tracking migratory movements across Europe and by combining this information with empirical data on fruit ingestion times, departure times, flight speed, and seed retention times in the birds' gut.

🧵 2/n The migration of frugivorous birds is one of the biological phenomena with the greatest potential to disperse the seeds of fleshy-fruited plants over long distances. But we did not know the distances over which frugivorous birds are able to disperse seeds during migration.

📸 Luis Ojembarrena