Figure 1. A) Social status has predictable effects on
individual resource access and space use that may explain
individual-level variation in seed dispersal effectiveness. Dominant
individuals monopolize preferred resources, forcing subordinate
individuals to supplement their diets to a greater extent with secondary
resources. Subordinate individuals may then disperse disproportionately
more or less seeds than dominant individuals, depending on whether fruit
is the primary or secondary resource. While this hypothesis has been
supported in recent work on Japanese macaques (Tsuji et al.2020), our framework demonstrates that this hypothesis could be applied
to a broad range of taxa. Our framework is also novel in its
demonstration of how social status may affect spatial patterns of seed
dispersal, with clear consequences for seedling establishment. Dominant
individuals typically defend territories with preferred habitat types,
and subordinate individuals generally have less restricted home ranges,
sample more habitat patches during a foray, and are more likely to go on
extraterritorial forays. Subordinate individuals are consequently more
likely to move seeds greater distances and deposit seeds in a broader
diversity of habitat types. Since post-dispersal seed survival and plant
recruitment are likely to vary across different habitats in a landscape
(e.g., differences in granivore abundance or resource availability), the
quality of seed dispersal services provided by subordinate individuals
may differ substantially from dominant individuals. B) We
provide predictions for the different types of seed dispersal kernels
that may arise due to animal social behavior, highlighting that the
outcome depends on food and habitat preferences of the animal dispersal
agent.