Interspecific synchrony of seed rain shapes rodent‐mediated indirect seed–seed interactions of sympatric tree species in a subtropical forest

Yang, Xifu; Yan, Chuan; Gu, Haifeng; Zhang, Zhibin

doi:10.1111/ele.13405

Cited by 40 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Rodents strongly affect plant regeneration and community composition in forest ecosystems by their scatterhoarding of seeds and by changing plant-plant interactions (Kang et al 2020;Yang et al 2020). In the current study, we examined the indirect effects of rodents on carbon emission from soil after a heavy snowfall.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant–rodent interactions after a heavy snowfall decrease plant regeneration and soil carbon emission in an old-growth forest

Zhou

Xia

et al. 2021

For. Ecosyst.

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Background Climate extremes are likely to become more common in the future and are expected to change ecosystem processes and functions. As important consumers of seeds in forests, rodents are likely to affect forest regeneration following an extreme weather event. In April 2015, we began a field experiment after an extreme snowfall event in January 2015 in a primary forest that was > 300 years old. The heavy snow broke many tree limbs, which presumably reduced the numbers of seeds produced. Two treatments (rodent exclusion and rodent access) were established in the forest, in which rodent exclusion were achieved by placing stainlessness nets around the plot borders. Plant abundance, plant species richness, soil properties, soil microbial community composition, basal and substrate-induced respiration were determined in December 2017. Results Plant abundance and species richness significantly increased, but soil microbial biomass decreased with rodent exclusion. Urease activity and soil basal respiration also significantly decreased with rodent exclusion. Most other soil properties, however, were unaffected by rodent exclusion. The relative effects of multiple predictors of basal respiration were mainly explained by the composition of the soil microbial community. Conclusions After a heavy snowfall in an old-growth forest, exclusion of rodents increased plant regeneration and reduced microbial biomass and soil basal respiration. The main factor associated with the reduction in soil basal respiration was the change in the composition of the soil microbial community. These findings suggest that after a heavy snowfall, rodents may interfere with forest regeneration by directly reducing plant diversity and abundance but may enhance carbon retention by indirectly altering the soil microbial community.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant–rodent interactions after a heavy snowfall decrease plant regeneration and soil carbon emission in an old-growth forest

Zhou

Xia

et al. 2021

For. Ecosyst.

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“…The study site is manly covered with subtropical evergreen broad‐leaved forests, in which Lithocarpus harlandii , Castanopsis fargesii , Quercus variabilis , Cyclobalanopsis glauca , Q. serrata , Acer catalpifolium , Pinus massoniana , Phoebe zhennan , and Camellia oleifera are commonly found (Yang et al . 2020).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Olfaction alters spatial memory strategy of scatter‐hoarding animals

Wang

et al. 2020

Integr. Zool.

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Although it has been suggested that olfaction is closely interconnected with hippocampal systems, whether olfaction regulates spatial memory strategy remains never known. Furthermore, no study has examined how olfaction mediates spatial memory established on the external objects, for example, caches made by scatter‐hoarding animals. Here, we experimentally induced nondestructive and reversible olfaction loss of a scatter‐hoarding animal Leopoldamys edwardsi, to test whether and how olfaction regulates spatial memory to mediate cache recovery and pilferage. Our results showed that the normal L. edwardsi preferred to pilfer caches of others rather than to recover their own using accurate spatial memory (35.7% vs. 18.6%). Anosmic L. edwardsi preferred to recover the caches they made prior to olfaction loss rather than to pilfer from others relied on spatial memory (54.2% vs. 36.0%). However, L. edwardsi with anosmia showed no preference either to the caches they established after olfaction loss or caches made by others (25.8% vs. 29.1%). These collectively indicate that olfaction loss has a potential to affect new memory formation but not previously established spatial memory on caches. Our study first showed that olfaction modified spatial memory strategy in cache recovery and pilferage behaviors of scatter‐hoarding animals. We suggest that future studies pay more attention to the evolution of olfaction and its relationship with spatial memory strategy.

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“…Apodemus mice are among the most important seed predators and scatterhoarders in Eurasia (e.g. Muñoz and Bonal 2011, Shimada et al 2015, Yang et al 2019, Wróbel and Zwolak 2019). While we found it useful to base our parameter estimates on a specific, reasonably well-studied system, we also performed a global sensitivity analysis for our main conclusions (Appendix B).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mast seeding promotes evolution of scatter-hoarding

Zwolak

Clement²,

Sih³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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14 15 16 17 18 KEYWORDS (4-6): Evolutionary stable strategies, masting, scatterhoarding, pilferage, seed caching, 19 synzoochory. 20 21 22 23 Number of words: 7127 24 ABSTRACT 25Many plant species worldwide are dispersed by scatterhoarding granivores: animals that hide seeds in 26 numerous, small caches for future consumption. Yet, the evolution of scatterhoarding is difficult to 27 explain because undefended caches are at high risk of pilferage. Previous models have attempted to 28 solve this problem by giving cache owners unrealistically large advantages in cache recovery, by kin 29 selection (but individuals that cache and those that pilfer are usually unrelated), or by introducing 30 reciprocal pilferage of "shared" seed resources. However, the role of environmental variability has 31 been so far overlooked in this context. One important form of such variability is masting, which is 32 displayed by many plant species dispersed by scatterhoarders. We use a mathematical model to 33 investigate the influence of masting on the evolution of scatter-hoarding. The model accounts for 34 periodically varying annual seed fall, caching and pilfering behavior, and the demography of 35 scatterhoarders. Masting, through its effects on population density, reduces cache pilferage and 36 lowers the reproductive cost of caching (i.e. the cost of caching for the future rather than using seeds 37 for current reproduction). These reductions promote the evolution of scatter-hoarding behavior 38 especially when interannual variation in seed fall and the period between masting events are high. 39the per capita advantage of owner versus pilferer, but under natural conditions there typically are 58 many potential pilferers per each cache owner. Thus, caches are more likely to be emptied by a 59 pilferer than by the owner even when per capita advantage of the latter is substantial. Second, most 60 empirical studies have been short-term, with cache recovery examined over several days at most. 61Long-term (e.g. overwinter) removal rates might be very similar for cache owners and pilferers 62 because cache locations are forgotten over time (Balda and Kamil 1992;Bednekoff et al. 1997; 63 Barkley and Jacobs 1998). Over the long-term, cache owners will increasingly rely on olfaction or 64 random search, just like naïve individuals do. As a consequence, the owners advantage appears to be

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Interspecific synchrony of seed rain shapes rodent‐mediated indirect seed–seed interactions of sympatric tree species in a subtropical forest

Cited by 40 publications

References 63 publications

Plant–rodent interactions after a heavy snowfall decrease plant regeneration and soil carbon emission in an old-growth forest

Plant–rodent interactions after a heavy snowfall decrease plant regeneration and soil carbon emission in an old-growth forest

Olfaction alters spatial memory strategy of scatter‐hoarding animals

Mast seeding promotes evolution of scatter-hoarding

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