Fig. 2: Structural changes in seed-dispersal networks in response to simulated animal extinctions.

The consequences of size-structured bird extinctions (downsizing; red line) and random bird extinctions (mean across 1000 iterations; black line) are shown for a the number of interactions and b secondary plant species extinctions. Values on the y-axis represent the proportional loss relative to the number of interactions and plant species in the original network. Red and gray areas represent the 95% confidence intervals across the eight Andean seed-dispersal networks. Red-dashed lines in a and b indicate the percentage of structural loss after 10 and 50% of bird species had been removed in the downsizing scenario.