Avian Seed Dispersal on Virginia Barrier Islands: Potential Influence on Vegetation Community Structure and Patch Dynamics

2010 ◽  
Vol 164 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheri A. Shiflett ◽  
Donald R. Young
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Seed Dispersal ◽  
Patch Dynamics ◽  
Barrier Islands ◽  
Potential Influence ◽  
Vegetation Community ◽  
Avian Seed Dispersal

scholarly journals Vegetation Response to Goats Grazing Intensity in Semiarid Hilly Grassland of the Loess Plateau, Lanzhou, China

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3569
Author(s):  
Hua Cheng ◽  
Baocheng Jin ◽  
Kai Luo ◽  
Jiuying Pei ◽  
Xueli Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rate ◽  
Community Structure ◽  
Plant Growth ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Grazing Intensity ◽  
Gps Tracking ◽  
Growth Stages ◽  
The Loess Plateau ◽  
Vegetation Community ◽  
Natural Grasslands

Quantitatively estimating the grazing intensity (GI) effects on vegetation in semiarid hilly grassland of the Loess Plateau can help to develop safe utilization levels for natural grasslands, which is a necessity of maintaining livestock production and sustainable development of grasslands. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), field vegetation data, and 181 days (one goat per day) of GPS tracking were combined to quantify the spatial pattern of GI, and its effects on the vegetation community structure. The spatial distribution of GI was uneven, with a mean value of 0.50 goats/ha, and 95% of the study area had less than 1.30 goats/ha. The areas with utilization rates of rangeland (July) lower than 45% and 20% made up about 95% and 60% of the study area, respectively. Grazing significantly reduced monthly aboveground biomass, but the grazing effects on plant growth rate were complex across the different plant growth stages. Grazing impaired plant growth in general, but the intermediate GI appeared to facilitate plant growth rate at the end of the growing seasons. Grazing had minimal relationship with vegetation community structure characteristics, though Importance Value of forbs increased with increasing GI. Flexibility in the number of goats and conservatively defining utilization rate, according to the inter-annual variation of utilization biomass, would be beneficial to achieve ecologically healthy and economically sustainable GI.

scholarly journals Defaunation precipitates the extinction of evolutionarily distinct interactions in the Anthropocene

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. eaav6699 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carine Emer ◽  
Mauro Galetti ◽  
Marco A. Pizo ◽  
Pedro Jordano ◽  
Miguel Verdú
Keyword(s):  
Seed Dispersal ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Forest Fragments ◽  
Ecological Interactions ◽  
Rescue Effect ◽  
History Of ◽  
Local Extinctions ◽  
Functional Features ◽  
Avian Seed Dispersal

Species on Earth are interconnected with each other through ecological interactions. Defaunation can erode those connections, yet we lack evolutionary predictions about the consequences of losing interactions in human-modified ecosystems. We quantified the fate of the evolutionary history of avian–seed dispersal interactions across tropical forest fragments by combining the evolutionary distinctness of the pairwise-partner species, a proxy to their unique functional features. Both large-seeded plant and large-bodied bird species showed the highest evolutionary distinctness. We estimate a loss of 3.5 to 4.7 × 104 million years of cumulative evolutionary history of interactions due to defaunation. Bird-driven local extinctions mainly erode the most evolutionarily distinct interactions. However, the persistence of less evolutionarily distinct bird species in defaunated areas exerts a phylogenetic rescue effect through seed dispersal of evolutionarily distinct plant species.

Avian Seed Dispersal in and Near Subtropical Rainforests.

1993 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 535 ◽  
Author(s):  
RJ Green
Keyword(s):  
Seed Dispersal ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Rain Forest ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Seed Predators ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Avian Seed Dispersal ◽  
Seed Dispersers ◽  
Forest Plants

The behaviour of avian visitors to 23 species of subtropical Australian rain forest plants was observed in the Lamington and Border Ranges National Parks on the Queensland/New South Wales border to determine potentially important seed dispersers, seed predators and fruit thieves.

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