The latest paper of my dissertation is finally published!

The latest paper of my dissertation is finally out! In this study, we investigated if the way bird species interact with the plants they feed on is structured depending on how stable the bird species are over macroevolutionary timescales.

Despite much has been discovered about how species interactions are organised within communities, little is known about how these interaction networks are assembled in deep time scales (i.e. millions of years). Using data from molecular phylogenies of birds and from seed dispersal networks we found that the most central species in these networks belong to lineages that are more stable (i.e. with higher longevity and/or higher capacity of accumulating species) over millions of years. This means that bird species that are more stable either interact with more species of plants, or that brings groups of plants closer to one another, connecting different groups of species. This relationship is even stronger in hotter and wetter environments, highlighting the effect of the abiotic environment in shaping the interaction between animals and plants in geological timescales.

You can find the paper in this link