The ecological footprint of Acca sellowiana domestication maintains the residual vertebrate diversity in threatened highlands of Atlantic Forest.

Past and contemporary human actions are causing numerous changes in patterns and processes at various ecosystem scales and trophic levels, including unintended downstream changes, such as species interactions. In its native range Acca sellowiana (Feijoa) combines some characteristics of human interactions: incipient domestication, restricted to subtropical Atlantic Forest highlands, associated with the threatened conifer Araucaria angustifolia (Araucaria), within a domesticated landscape with anthropogenic forest patches, and provides fruit at a time of resource shortage (Araucaria seeds-pinhão). We quantify the trophic relationships between Feijoa and vertebrates, and evaluate the influences on interactions caused by environmental variations, Feijoa domestication evidences, spatial distance and fruit availability. In four sites within protected areas, we selected 28 focal individuals of Feijoa (seven/site) and collected three temporal replicas between 2015 and 2016, when we measured productivity and frugivory via 45-second videos taken with camera traps. Using ecological network, rarefaction curves and variation partitioning analyses, we evaluate the frugivory network topology, the spatiotemporal structure of communities in relation to fruit availability and the influence of predictive variables on frugivory. We found a large spatiotemporal variation in productivity of Feijoa and that 20 species consumed Feijoa fruits, with a species degree of 2.8 (±5.7) and average Feijoa degree of 14.4 (±10.1), in a modular network with intermediary connectance. Rarefaction curves showed that richness and the independent records are congruent with the fruit amount. Variation partitioning showed that, for the focal individuals, canopy area, green coverage, patch size and distance to water influenced frugivory, and the Feijoa domestication influenced significantly the mammalian frugivory. Feijoa is an important resource that provides food during the time of year when Pinhão is absent, and attracts frugivores, maintain the residual diversity of vertebrates contributing to the structure of communities in highlands. Our insights allowed us to evaluate the magnitude of the interactions between vertebrates and an incipient domesticated tree, in a cultural landscape and highly threatened environment, under a basal foodweb approach with implications for bottom-up and top-down forces. The results contribute to understanding animal-plant relationships, including concepts that can be replicated for other sessile prey and mobile predators in any region or habitat under different gradients of management. Thus, this work shows how human actions can change not only patterns of distribution and abundance but also the diversity and direction of interspecific interactions among species.

Micropropagation systems of Feijoa (Acca sellowiana (O. Berg) Burret).

Acca sellowiana (O. Berg) Burret sin. Feijoa sellowiana (Myrtaceae) is a semiwoody fruit species native to South Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina; edible fruits are tasty. The naturally occurring populations in Santa Catarina State show high variability in fruit size, color, and other features. A breeding program launched in 1990 resulted in the release of four Brazilian commercial varieties. The conventional clonal propagation methods of this species, such as cutting and grafting, have shown low efficiency. Therefore, tissue culture techniques were developed for mass propagation. This chapter describes several protocols based on organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis. Additional techniques including synthetic seed technology and temporary immersion system are also described.