Climate change is causing birds and mammals to move away from their normal habitats, but what happens to the plants that depended on them for seed dispersal? Loss of biodiversity is a problem for plants that can’t just pack up and go.
“For decades scientists have been tracking which birds and other animals eat fruits and the seeds they contain, how far those seeds are transported and whether they germinate wherever they are deposited. These are what ecologists call mutualistic interactions. “The animal gets some fruit, and the plant gets to move,” Fricke explains.”