Population biology of west coast Cakile maritima: effects of habitat and predation by Peromyscus maniculatus

1991 ◽  
Vol 69 (12) ◽  
pp. 2620-2630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert S. Boyd
Keyword(s):  
Seed Dispersal ◽  
Population Biology ◽  
Peromyscus Maniculatus ◽  
Fruit Production ◽  
Seasonal Effects ◽  
Plant Demography ◽  
Sand Burial ◽  
Cakile Maritima ◽  
Plant Animal Interactions ◽  
Survival Patterns

Survival patterns of Cakile maritima Scop. ssp. maritima seedlings in adjacent open-beach and foredune habitats differed, with significant cohort and seasonal effects only for open-beach plants. Open-beach plants were usually killed by fall storms. Some foredune plants (5.3%) survived into a second reproductive season, producing 85% of mature fruits in the foredune. Peromyscus maniculatus (Wagner) removed 95% of fruits matured by foredune plants. Sand burial of fruits increased their chances of escaping predation. Burial was 52-fold more likely for fruits on open-beach plants compared with foredune plants, resulting in lower seed predation on the open beach. Germination from P. maniculatus caches produced 63% of foredune plants, but they represented only 0.002% of all removed seeds. Cache plants had lowered survival relative to noncache plants, so that seed dispersal by P. maniculatus did not benefit C. maritima. Both foredune and open-beach populations were likely to decline if transition patterns among age-classes and fruit production rates observed in 1983 and 1984 remained constant. Because of high fruit production by overwintering plants, foredune plants produced more fruits than needed to maintain plant numbers, but predation by P. maniculatus reduced seed survival to less than 20% of the replacement rate for that habitat. Key words: Cakile maritima, Peromyscus maniculatus, plant–animal interactions, seed dispersal, seed bank, plant demography.

scholarly journals Fruit production, migrant bird visitation, and seed dispersal of Guarea glabra in Panama

Oecologia ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry F. Howe ◽  
Diane De Steven
Keyword(s):  
Seed Dispersal ◽  
Fruit Production ◽  
Migrant Bird

Plant-Animal Interactions and Fruit Production in a Neotropical Herb: A Path Analysis

Ecology ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 1128-1137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas W. Schemske ◽  
Carol C. Horvitz
Keyword(s):  
Path Analysis ◽  
Fruit Production ◽  
Plant Animal Interactions

scholarly journals Seed dispersal syndromes in the Madagascan flora: the unusual importance of primates

Oryx ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 418-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurélie Albert-Daviaud ◽  
Sarah Perillo ◽  
Wolfgang Stuppy
Keyword(s):  
Seed Dispersal ◽  
Data Science ◽  
Plant Traits ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Lower Percentage ◽  
Endemic Plant ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Dispersal Syndromes ◽  
Plant Animal Interactions ◽  
Lemur Species

AbstractMadagascar is one of the most threatened biodiversity hotspots, and protection of its biodiversity is becoming increasingly urgent as deforestation of the island continues. For the long-term success of conservation efforts it is essential that key ecological processes, such as seed dispersal, are protected and restored. Therefore, the identification of ecological gaps is a vital task. For Madagascar, only little is known about plant–animal interactions, and traditional methods of ecological research are too time-consuming to provide crucial information about breakdowns in these interactions. To identify likely dispersal gaps we therefore used a theoretical approach to analyse plant–disperser interactions in Madagascar. We used data science tools to impute missing data on relevant plant traits to subsequently predict the most likely dispersal agents for each of Madagascar's endemic plant species. We found that 38% of the endemic species (N = 8,784) are endozoochorous, and among these 26–41% display a primate syndrome and 17–19% a bird syndrome (depending on the definition of syndromes). This lower percentage of endozoochorous species and higher percentage of species with a primate syndrome in Madagascar compared to other tropical areas reflects the unusual disperser guild on the island. Only five bird species but 20 lemur species are frugivorous, and 16 of those lemur species are currently threatened with extinction. The disappearance of frugivorous lemurs would significantly change the vegetation dynamics of Madagascar's ecosystems, and a high proportion of Madagascar's endemic plants would enter an extinction vortex.

scholarly journals Multi-seasonal effects of warming and elevated CO2 on the physiology, growth and production of mature, field grown, Shiraz grapevines

OENO One ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Everard J. Edwards ◽  
Dale Unwin ◽  
Rachel Kilmister ◽  
Michael Treeby
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Plant Physiology ◽  
Shoot Growth ◽  
Heating System ◽  
Fruit Production ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Seasonal Effects ◽  
Fruit Composition ◽  
Mature Field ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Abstract:</strong> Industry concerns in Australia about the impacts of climate change have, to date, focused on the effects of warming, particularly shorter maturation periods. The effects of elevated CO<sub>2</sub> concentration (eCO<sub>2</sub>) on C<sub>3</sub> plant physiology have been extensively studied and suggest that eCO<sub>2 </sub>impacts on viticulture could affect grapevine shoot growth, fruit production and fruit composition. We previously used open top chambers (OTC) with an active heating system to study the effects of elevated air temperature (eTemp) on mature grapevines in the field. This system was augmented with the ability to elevate atmospheric CO<sub>2 </sub>and established in a mature Shiraz vineyard in a factorial combination of eTemp and eCO<sub>2</sub>. Three seasons of observations on the eTemp only treatment corroborated our previous study; all aspects of phenology were advanced, but leaf function was largely unaffected. In contrast, the effects of eCO<sub>2</sub> on phenology were small in the first season, but increased over the subsequent two seasons. Interactive effects of the treatments on gas exchange were observed; photosynthesis rates were significantly higher in the eCO<sub>2</sub>+eTemp treatment, compared to eCO<sub>2</sub> alone, suggesting that the likely future climate will have a larger impact on viticulture than might be predicted from experiments examining only one of these factors.</p>

scholarly journals A missing link in mutualistic networks: symbiotic fungi in plant-animal interactions

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priscila Chaverri ◽  
Gloriana Chaverri
Keyword(s):  
Seed Dispersal ◽  
Plant Disease ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Tropical Plants ◽  
Mutualistic Relationship ◽  
Symbiotic Fungi ◽  
Mutualistic Networks ◽  
Microbial Symbionts ◽  
Plant Animal Interactions

AbstractWe explored the hypothesis of an indirect mutualistic relationship (i.e., when the association between two species is modified by a third one) within a plant-animal seed dispersal network. Bats are important long-distance dispersers of many tropical plants, yet, by consuming fruits they may disperse not only the plant’s seeds, but also the endosymbiotic fungi within those fruits. We characterized fungal communities in fruits of Ficus colubrinae and in feces of Ectophylla alba to determine if passage through the digestive tract of the bats affected the total mycobiome. Results show a significant reduction, after passage through the gut, of fungi known to be plant pathogenic, while abundance of species known to have beneficial properties significantly increased. These findings suggest that the role of frugivores in plant-animal mutualistic networks may extend beyond seed dispersal: they also promote the dispersal of potentially beneficial microbial symbionts while hindering those that can cause plant disease.

scholarly journals Seed dispersal and predation of Buchenavia tomentosa Eichler (Combretaceae) in a Cerrado sensu stricto, midwest Brazil

2015 ◽  
Vol 75 (4 suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 88-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Farias ◽  
M. Sanchez ◽  
M. F. Abreu ◽  
F. Pedroni
Keyword(s):  
Seed Dispersal ◽  
Germination Rate ◽  
Fruit Production ◽  
Sensu Stricto ◽  
High Abundance ◽  
Atta Sexdens ◽  
Fruit Removal ◽  
Leafcutter Ants ◽  
Removal Experiments ◽  
Tapirus Terrestris

Abstract The ecology of seed dispersal is critical to understand the patterns of distribution and abundance of plant species. We investigated seed dispersal aspects associated with the high abundance of Buchenavia tomentosa in the Serra Azul State Park (PESA). We estimated fruit production and conducted fruit removal experiments. We carried out diurnal and nocturnal observations on frugivory as well as germination tests. Fruiting occurred in the dry season and totaled 1,365,015 ± 762,670 fruits.ha–1. B. tomentosa fruits were utilized by eight animal species. The lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris) was considered the main seed disperser. Leafcutter ants (Atta laevigata and Atta sexdens) participated in the seed cleaning and occasionally dispersed seeds. The beetle Amblycerus insuturatus, blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara ararauna) and red-and-green macaw (Ara chloropterus) were considered pre-dispersal seed predators. The seeds manually cleaned presented higher germination rate (100%) and speed index (4.2 seeds.d–1) than that of seeds with pulp. Germination of seeds found in tapirs’feces was 40%, while for the seeds without pulp it was 25%. The high abundance of B. tomentosa in the cerrado of PESA may be due to massive fruit production, low rates of seed predation, and efficient seed dispersal by tapirs, occurring before the rains which promote germination and recruitment of this species.

Frugivory and seed dispersal in Cymbopetalum baillonii (Annonaceae) at Los Tuxtlas, Mexico

1988 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosamond Coates-Estrada ◽  
Alejandro Estrada
Keyword(s):  
Seed Dispersal ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Narrow Range ◽  
Fruit Production ◽  
Foraging Activity ◽  
Los Tuxtlas ◽  
Parent Tree ◽  
Adult Trees ◽  
Dispersal Agents ◽  
Fruit Dehiscence

ABSTRACTFruit production, frugivore foraging activity and seed dispersal was studied at 10 Cymbopetalum baillonii (Annonaceae) trees during an entire fruiting season. Fruits dehisced during the first six months of the year offer to potential dispersal agents a package of 8–24 arillate seeds. Insects and fungi, however, killed up to 14% of the seeds potentially available for dispersal before fruit dehiscence. Visitation by 24 species of birds and one mammal to the trees closely followed the availability of arillate seeds. The foraging activity of Peromyscus and Heteromys rodents accounted for ≥ 80% mortality of the seeds deposited under the crown of the parent tree. Among those seedlings that became established under the crown mortality was ≥ 90% after 12 months. Seeds dispersed under conspecific fruiting trees experienced intense predation by vertebrates. Field experiments showed that seeds and seedlings planted ≥ 30 m away from adult trees survived significantly longer than those planted under the crown and at distances ≤ 30 m. An unequivocal advantage to dispersal away from the tree and under allospecific trees was evident from the data. A very narrow range of frugivores (N = 8 species) accounted for the quality component of dispersal services to the trees. The tree with the lowest animal visitation and fruit crop was the most efficient in the dispersal of its seeds.

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