Large herbivores as mobile links between isolated nature reserves through adhesive seed dispersal

Couvreur, Martine; Christiaen, Bart; Verheyen, Verheyen; Hermy, Martin

doi:10.1658/1402-2001(2004)007[0229:lhamlb]2.0.co;2

Cited by 28 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…In terms of the kind of appendage, AtPs are generally ranked in the following order: hooks > pappus > awn > no appendage. The overwhelming effect of diaspore morphology on epizoochorous transport has often been assumed (Ridley 1930;Müller-Schneider 1977;van der Pijl 1982;Davidse 1986) and verified (Shmida and Ellner 1983;Graae 2002), but has to be relativised by the results of other field studies: it was often shown that -regardless of diaspore morphologylight diaspores of almost every plant species can be transported epizoochorously as long as the species is abundant in an animal's habitat and grows high enough to reach the animal's coat (Fischer et al 1996;Couvreur et al 2004a).…”

Section: Effect Of Plant Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…several attempts have been made to quantify epizoochorous dispersal (Agnew and Flux 1970;Bullock and Primack 1977;Shmida and Ellner 1983;Fischer et al 1996;Stender et al 1997;Heinken and Raudnitschka 2002;Castillo-Flores and Calvo-Irabien 2003;Couvreur et al 2004a;Eichberg et al 2005;Mouissie et al 2005). While these field studies are valuable in revealing principal mechanisms, they can hardly be used for the quantitative prediction of epizoochorous seed dispersal in other situations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ridley 1930;Müller-Schneider 1977;van der Pijl 1982;Sorensen 1986;Hughes et al 1994;Kiviniemi and Telenius 1998). However, not only species with adhesive diaspores can be dispersed epizochorously but also species with unassisted seeds (Fischer et al 1996;Heinken and Raudnitschka 2002;Couvreur et al 2004a; Mouissie et al 2005), suggesting that diaspore morphology is a poor predictor of long-distance dispersal (Higgins et al 2003). This qualitative approach may also be inexact, since it does not allow for subtle differences in diaspore morphology (Römermann et al 2005;Tackenberg et al 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The effectiveness of external animal dispersal in the coat depends on a range of plant traits, including the height of the infructescence (Fischer et al 1996;Graae 2002;Mouissie et al 2005), time period of seed release (Couvreur et al 2004a), seed production (Mouissie et al 2005), diaspore morphology and weight (Heinken and Raudnitschka 2002;Römermann et al 2005;Tackenberg et al 2006) and diaspore exposure in the infructescence. Animal attributes influencing dispersal effectiveness are coat type (Laughlin 2003;Couvreur et al 2004b), grooming behaviour (Agnew and Flux 1970;Kiviniemi 1996), movement (Morales et al 2004) and home range (Mrotzek et al 1999;Schmidt et al 2004) or grazing regime.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Experimental studies of diaspore attachment to animal coats: predicting epizoochorous dispersal potential

2007

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The transport of diaspores on animal hairs depends on the ability of a diaspore to attach to the hair and to be retained in it over longer periods of time. Whereas several studies of diaspore retention on animal hairs have been conducted recently, the process of diaspore attachment to the hair has not yet been studied systematically. We describe a new method to quantify the attachment potential (AtP) of plant diaspores. Attachment potential was measured as the proportion of diaspores of a given species that attached to pieces of an animal coat in a standardised experiment. The experiment was conducted for 58 plant species (herbs and grasses) and three different coat types: sheep wool, cattle and roe deer hair. Attachment potentials differed widely between the three coat types, but also between plant species. We found diaspore surface structure (a quantitative measure of diaspore morphology) and diaspore exposition (describing the morphology of the infructescence) to be the most important plant traits regulating AtP. An influence of seed mass on attachment potential could not be detected. For sheep wool, a general linear model (with diaspore exposure as a factor and diaspore surface structure as covariate) explained 77% of the variation in AtPs. To validate this model, we predicted AtPs for 27 additional species and compared these to the measured Atps; the predicted and measured AtPscorrelated significantly with r(s) = 0.68. A comparison of attachment and retention potentials to sheep wool for 127 randomly selected plant species showed that attachment and retention are only very weakly correlated, indicating that both processes act rather independently of each other. Since many diaspores seem to perform well in only one of these processes, attachment can be considered to be as equally as decisive as retention in terms of epizoochorous dispersal.

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Section: Effect Of Plant Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Experimental studies of diaspore attachment to animal coats: predicting epizoochorous dispersal potential

2007

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“…These habitats are dependent on traditional management practices and there has been a massive loss of grassland area within the modern agricultural landscape (Poschlod & WallisDeVries 2002). In the case of grazed semi‐natural grasslands, where the dispersal of many plant species is greatly enhanced by the movement of grazing animals (Couvreur et al. 2004; Bruun & Poschlod 2006), connectivity measures based on simple, distance‐based statistics are unlikely to represent biologically realistic descriptors of grassland connectivity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

History matters: village distances, grazing and grassland species diversity

Reitalu

Johansson

Sykes

et al. 2010

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Summary1. Temperate semi-natural grasslands are characterized by high levels of species diversity and have a high conservation value. Plant species diversity in grazed semi-natural grasslands is known to be influenced by management intensity and habitat connectivity. Both grazing pressure and betweenpatch connectivity are expected to depend on the movement patterns of livestock in the landscape. 2. The present study examines associations between fine-scale (within 0AE25 m 2 plots) plant species diversity in semi-natural grasslands and present grazing intensity, present and historical habitat connectivity, and the (present and historical) distance from the nearest village. The study area was a local (4AE5 · 4AE5 km) agricultural landscape on the island of Ö land, Sweden. 3. Fine-scale (Shannon) diversity and species richness were unimodally associated with the distance from the nearest historical (ad 1800) village, with maximum values c. 1-1AE5 km from villages. These associations suggest that the distance from historical villages behaves as an integrated descriptor of variation in long-term management intensity (livestock movements) and reflects aspects of the functional connectivity between plant communities in semi-natural grasslands. 4. Groups of variables characterizing village distances, grazing pressure and habitat connectivity had overlapping effects on species diversity. Grazing intensity had the largest individual impact on diversity, followed by the distance from the nearest historical village and present-day habitat connectivity. 5. Synthesis and applications. The study indicates the importance of viewing grassland diversity in the context of local landscape history. Unimodal associations between fine-scale plant species diversity and the distance from the nearest village in ad 1800 suggest that information on the proximity to villages in the historical landscape has a potential use in conservation planning -as an indicator of variation in long-term grassland management intensity. Conservation programmes for grazed temperate grasslands should (1) give priority to old grasslands with an uninterrupted history of grazing management, (2) ensure a moderate grazing intensity, (3) avoid overgrazing and ⁄ or long breaks in the continuity of grazing management.

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Epizoochorous dispersal by ungulates depends on fur, grooming and social interactions

Liehrmann¹,

Jégoux

Guilbert

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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The transport phase of the animal‐mediated plant dispersal process is critical to dispersal effectiveness as it determines the spatial distribution of the diaspores released and their chance for further recruitment. Assessing this specific phase of the dispersal process generally requires combining diaspore retention times with the associated distances covered. Here, we specifically tested the effect of grooming behavior, interindividual contacts and ungulate fur on diaspore retention times and associated dispersal distances for the hooked diaspores of Xanthium strumarium L. experimentally attached to tamed individuals of three ungulate species. We used a comparative approach based on differing fur quality on different body zones of these three ungulates. During 6‐hr sessions, we monitored for grooming and social interactions that may induce intended or inadvertent diaspore detachment. Additionally, we proposed innovative approaches to directly assessing diaspore dispersal distances by red deer in situ. Fat‐tailed functions fitted diaspore retention time, highlighting the potential for long‐distance dispersal events. The longer the hair, the higher the retention capacity of diaspores in the animal's fur. As predicted, donkey retained diaspores longer than red deer and dwarf goat; and we also confirmed that diaspores attached to the short hair of the head fell off more quickly than did those on the other body zones. Dwarf goat groomed more often than both red deer and donkey, but also when it carried diaspores. Up to 14% of the diaspores detached from animal fur after specific grooming behavior. We observed, in controlled conditions, for the first time and for each ungulate species, interindividual transfers of diaspores, representing 5% of the diaspores attached to animals’ fur. Our results militate for incorporating animal behavior into plant dispersal modeling approaches.

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Large herbivores as mobile links between isolated nature reserves through adhesive seed dispersal

Cited by 28 publications

References 28 publications

Experimental studies of diaspore attachment to animal coats: predicting epizoochorous dispersal potential

Experimental studies of diaspore attachment to animal coats: predicting epizoochorous dispersal potential

History matters: village distances, grazing and grassland species diversity

Epizoochorous dispersal by ungulates depends on fur, grooming and social interactions

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