Network metrics are widely used to infer the roles of mutualistic animals in plant communities and to predict the effect of species' loss. However, their empirical validation is scarce. Here we parameterized a joint species model of frugivory and seed dispersal with bird movement and foraging data from tropical and temperate communities. With this model, we investigate the effect of frugivore loss on seed rain, and compare our predictions to those of standard coextinction models and network metrics. Topological coextinction models underestimated species loss after the removal of highly linked frugivores with unique foraging behaviours. Network metrics informed about changes in seed rain quantity after frugivore loss. However, changes in seed rain composition were only predicted by partner diversity. Nestedness, closeness, and d' specialisation could not anticipate the effects of rearrangements in plant-frugivore communities following species loss. Accounting for behavioural differences among mutualists is critical to improve predictions from network models.

中文翻译：

---

网络指标可以预测鸟类分散的植物群落中的脆弱性和物种作用吗？并非没有行为。

网络度量标准广泛用于推断互惠动物在植物群落中的作用，并预测物种丧失的影响。但是，它们的经验验证很少。在这里，我们通过野外鸟类迁徙和热带和温带群落的觅食数据对节食和种子传播的联合物种模型进行了参数化。使用该模型，我们调查了节食动物损失对种子雨的影响，并将我们的预测与标准共消灭模型和网络度量标准的预测进行了比较。拓扑共灭模型低估了除去具有独特觅食行为的高度相关的食肉动物后的物种损失。网络指标告知了食草动物损失后种子雨量的变化。但是，种子雨成分的变化仅通过伙伴多样性来预测。嵌套性，亲密性和d' 专业化无法预期物种丧失后植物节食动物群落重新排列的影响。解决互助者之间的行为差​​异对于改善网络模型的预测至关重要。