Plant invasions are rapidly becoming an important threat to the conservation of wildlands. Understanding how potentially invasive plants are dispersed to new habitats is a critical step in the process of understanding such invasions. Our objective was to characterize the potential for long-distance transport of plant species in the digestive tract of horses along recreational trails. We sampled horse dung along the first 4 000 m of the Lower Piney River trail in the White River Forest of western Colorado. We evaluated the seed content of each sample by applying standard methods for soil seed bank analysis. We found 20 species and 564 seedlings. Twelve of the species were graminoids, 6 were forbs, 1 was a shrub, and 1 was a tree. The species were evenly divided between natives and aliens, but 85% of the seedlings were aliens. An average of 47 seedlings emerged per sample, but the range was from 4 to 192. Our results make it clear that horses, and very likely all pack stock used on recreational trails, represent a potentially important dispersal vector for alien plants into western wildlands. RESUMEN Las invasiones de plantas se están convirtiendo rápidamente en una amenaza para la conservación de los terrenos silvestres. Entender como las plantas potencialmente invasoras son dispersadas hacia nuevos hábitats es un paso crítico en el proceso de comprender tales invasiones. Nuestro objetivo fue caracterizar el potencial de los caballos para transportar especies vegetales en su tacto digestivo por largas distancias a trave´s de caminos recreativos. Muestreamos excretas de caballo a través de los primeros 4 000 m del camino ''Lower Piney River'' en el bosque White River del oeste de Colorado. Evaluamos el contenido de semilla de cada muestra aplicando los me´todos estándar para análisis del banco de semillas del suelo. Encontramos 20 especies y 564 plántulas, 12 de las especies fueron gramíneas, seis hierbas, una arbustiva, y un árbol. Las especies estuvieron equitativamente repartidas entre nativas e introducidas, pero 85% de las plántulas fueron introducidas. En promedio 47 plántulas emergieron por muestra, pero el rango fue de 4 a 192. Nuestros resultados dejan claro que los caballos, y muy probablemente todos los implementos de acampar usados en los caminos recreativos representan un vector potencialmente importante de dispersión de semillas de especies introducidas a los tierras silvestres del oeste.
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