How important is long‐distance seed dispersal for the regional survival of plant species?

Abstract

Long-distance seed dispersal is generally assumed to be important for the regional survival of plant species. In this study, we quantified the importance of long-distance seed dispersal for regional survival of plant species using wind dispersal as an example. We did this using a new approach, by first relating plant species' dispersal traits to seed dispersal kernels and then relating the kernels to regional survival of the species. We used a recently developed and tested mechanistic seed dispersal model to calculate dispersal kernels from dispersal traits. We used data on 190 plant species and calculated their regional survival in two ways, using species distribution data from 36,800 1 km 2 -grid cells and 10,754 small plots covering the Netherlands during the largest part of the 20th century. We carried out correlation and stepwise multiple regression analyses to quantify the importance of long-distance dispersal, expressed as the 99-percentile dispersal distance of the dispersal kernels, relative to the importance of median-distance dispersal and other plant traits that are likely to contribute to the explanation of regional survival: plant longevity (annual, biennial, perennial), seed longevity, and plant nutrient requirement. Results show that long-distance dispersal plays a role in determining regional survival, and is more important than median-distance dispersal and plant longevity. However, long-distance dispersal by wind explains only 1-3% of the variation in regional survival between species and is equally important as seed longevity and much less important than nutrient requirement. In changing landscapes such as in the Netherlands, where large-scale eutrophication and habitat destruction took place in the 20th century, plant traits indicating ability to grow under the changed, increasingly nutrient-rich conditions turn out to be much more important for regional survival than seed dispersal.

Genetic diversity in rosewood saplings (Aniba rosaeodora ducke, Lauraceae): an ecological approach

“…Within this suite of factors, gene flow promoted by long-distance dispersal agents, such as frugivores and pollinators (Bossart & Prowell, 1998;Soons & Ozinga, 2005;Trakhtenbrot et al, 2005) may be a powerful factor influencing observed patterns of genetic diversity. Despite the fact that many studies have focused on gene flow, questions still remain regarding the effects of pollination and seed dispersal agents on seedling survival and plant genetic diversity (Willson & Traveset, 2000;Levine & Murell, 2003).…”

Predicting species' maximum dispersal distances from simple plant traits

“…To compile our data set, we used six previous studies that summarized published dispersal information and addressed a large number of species (Willson 1993, Hughes et al 1994, Cain et al 1998, Bullock and Clarke 2000, Ness et al 2004, Vittoz and Engler 2007, as well as studies in which the dispersal distances were derived from models parameterized with field data (e.g., Sheldon and Burrows 1973, Augspurger 1986, Matlack 1987, Ernst et al 1992, Sto¨cklin and Ba¨umler 1996, Kiviniemi and Telenius 1998, Jongejans and Telenius 2001, Soons and Ozinga 2005. We additionally searched the ISI Web of Science for papers published up until 31 January 2012, using the keywords ''seed,'' ''dispersal,'' and ''distance.''…”

“…A recent global review of seed dispersal distances of over 300 species (Thomson et al 2011) revealed that plant height is more important than seed mass in determining seed dispersal distances. Similarly, for wind-dispersed species, seed release height is often a good predictor of dispersal distance (Soons and Ozinga 2005).…”

“…Methods such as seed traps, direct observations, or genetic markers are used in the field (Bullock et al 2006). Some studies employ mechanistic models to estimate dispersal distances using information on seed and plant traits as well as environmental conditions (Soons and Ozinga 2005, Nathan et al 2011. Spatial patterns of seed dispersal are often depicted by a dispersal curve, i.e., a dispersal distance distribution, which displays the frequency (proportion or probability) of seeds reaching a given distance (Nathan et al 2012).…”

How did this snail get here? Several dispersal vectors inferred for an aquatic invasive species

“…Malmqvist, 2002;Frisch & Threlkeld, 2005), wind (anemochory; e.g. Soons & Ozinga, 2005;Soons, 2006;Vanschoenwinkel et al, 2008a), animals (zoochory; e.g. Figuerola, Green & Santamaría, 2003;Frisch, Green & Figuerola, 2007;Van Leeuwen et al, 2012a) and more recent human activities can explain how aquatic species can persist in metacommunity structures (reviewed by Bilton et al, 2001) and how aquatic species spread around the world.…”