Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) germination and survival in black-grama (Bouteloua eriopoda) grassland: relations between microsite and heteromyid rodent (Dipodomys spp.) impact

Duval, Benjamin D.; Jackson, Erik; Whitford, Walter G.

doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2005.01.012

Cited by 18 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…5), similar to observations of foraging pits of Indian crested porcupines in the Negev Desert (Gutterman et al 1990;Boeken et al 1995), the Cape porcupine (Hystrix africaeastralis) in South Africa (Bragg et al 2005), and a range of heteromyid rodents in the Chihuahuan Desert in the United States (Duval et al 2005). Additionally, there were almost twice as many seedlings in the pits of native engineers (11.2 seedlings m -2 ) than those of exotics (6.2 seedlings m -2 ) of a similar volume.…”

Section: Plant Germination In Foraging Pitssupporting

confidence: 81%

Can the invasive European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) assume the soil engineering role of locally-extinct natives?

James

Eldridge

Koen³

et al. 2011

Biol Invasions

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Habitat modifying species can play crucial roles in ecosystem function. Invasive engineers may assume these roles where native engineers have been lost from the system. We compared the dynamics of the foraging pits of an invasive engineer, the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) with two native mammals, the greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis) and the burrowing bettong (Bettongia lesueur). Foraging pits are small surface depressions created by animals when they forage for seeds, bulbs, roots, invertebrates and fungi. We measured foraging pit density and turnover, and density and richness of plant seedlings in pits and adjacent surfaces across three landforms representing a gradient in resource availability inside (bilbies and bettongs), and outside (rabbits only) a reserve in an arid Australian shrubland over 2 years. Pits of the native engineers contained 80% more seedlings (11.2 plants m -2 ) than rabbit pits (6.22 plants m -2 ). Further, rabbit pits supported 3.6-times fewer seedlings than equivalent non-pit surfaces outside the exclosure. Only one plant species was restricted entirely to pits. The reserve had more foraging pits and greater turnover than outside, but contrary to prediction, pit effects on seedling density were no greater in the more resource-limited dunes. There were some strong temporal and landscape effects on pit density and species composition, but generally trends were similar inside and outside the reserve. Overall, despite their functional similarities, invasive rabbits created fewer pits that were less favourable patches for seedlings than those of native engineers. Our work suggests that a suite of ecosystem processes associated with fertile patch creation has potentially been lost with the extirpation of bilbies and bettongs.

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Section: Plant Germination In Foraging Pitssupporting

confidence: 81%

Can the invasive European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) assume the soil engineering role of locally-extinct natives?

James

Eldridge

Koen³

et al. 2011

Biol Invasions

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“…Boeken et al, 1995;James and Eldridge, 2007;James et al, 2009). Pits may contain seed that has been intentionally cached by rodents (Duval et al, 2005;Geluso, 2005), seed accumulating through the action of wind and water (James and Eldridge, 2007), or both. Our study demonstrated significantly greater levels of water infiltration and labile carbon in the pits in the tarbush shrublands and black grama and tobosa grasslands.…”

Section: Animal Foraging Pits and Disturbances As Resource Trapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Animal foraging as a mechanism for sediment movement and soil nutrient development: Evidence from the semi-arid Australian woodlands and the Chihuahuan Desert

Eldridge¹,

Koen²,

Killgore

et al. 2012

Geomorphology

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An emerging area of interest in geomorphology over the past two decades has been the effects of biota on ecosystem processes. We examined the roles of a range of vertebrates on soil disturbance in two markedly different environments, the semi-arid woodland of eastern Australia and a Chihuahuan Desert grassland-shrubland in the south-western United States. Foraging pits of soil-disturbing vertebrates varied markedly from small scratchings of heteromyid (mainly Dipodomys spp.) rodents (1.8× 10 − 4 m 3 ) to deep (1.0 ×10 − 2 m 3 ) excavations of the burrowing bettong (Bettongia leuseur) and greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis). Vertebrates moved substantial volumes of soil in both environments, and activity was highly temporally and spatially variable. At large spatial scales, soil disturbance by echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus) and Gould's sand goannas (Varanus gouldii) was substantially greater in communities dominated by shrubs, and where domestic livestock had been excluded. Heteromyid rodents tended to excavate more foraging pits in coarse-textured vegetation communities (both grasslands and shrublands). In both environments, foraging was concentrated close to perennial plants such as grass tussocks and tree canopies rather than in the interspaces. Foraging pits of Chihuahuan desert animals tended to be higher in labile carbon and support greater levels of infiltration, though this was plant community-dependent. Overall our results indicate that animal foraging is an important geomorphic mechanism capable of mobilizing substantial volumes of soil in arid and semi-arid environments and with potential effects on soil function.

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“…). Defined as storage of food for later use in multiple, dispersed caches of one or a few items (Morris, ), scatter‐hoarding and its associated granivory help to regulate seedling recruitment in trees (reviewed by Vander Wall, , ; Vander Wall & Beck, ), shrubs (Boyd & Brum, ; Duval, Jackson & Whitford, ; Campos et al ., ), vines (Borchert, ), and other plants (e.g. Price & Jenkins, ; Wada & Uemura, ; Longland, ; Longland et al ., ; Kelt, ; Waitman, Vander Wall & Esque, ; Barga & Vander Wall, ) worldwide (Eurasia and the Americas: see reviews above; Africa: Kuechly et al ., ; Midgley et al ., ; Australia: Murphy, Garkaklis & Hardy, ; Theimer, ; Malaysia: Van der Meer et al ., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seed fate and decision‐making processes in scatter‐hoarding rodents

2015

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A mechanistic understanding of seed movement and survival is important both for the development of theoretical models of plant population dynamics, spatial spread, and community assembly, and for the conservation and management of plant communities under global change. While models of wind-borne seed dispersal have advanced rapidly over the past two decades, models for animal-mediated dispersal have failed to make similar progress due to their dependence on interspecific interactions and complex, context-dependent behaviours. In this review, we synthesize the literature on seed dispersal and consumption by scatter-hoarding, granivorous rodents and outline a strategy for development of a general mechanistic seed-fate model in these systems. Our review decomposes seed dispersal and survival into six distinct sub-processes (exposure, harvest, allocation, preparation, placement, and recovery), and identifies nine intermediate (latent) variables that link physical state variables (e.g. seed and animal traits, habitat structure) to decisions regarding seed allocation to hoarding or consumption, cache placement and management, and deployment of radicle-pruning or embryo excision behaviours. We also highlight specific areas where research on these intermediate relationships is needed to improve our mechanistic understanding of scatter-hoarder behaviour. Finally, we outline a strategy to combine detailed studies on individual functional relationships with seed-tracking experiments in an iterative, hierarchical Bayesian framework to construct, refine, and test mechanistic models for context-dependent, scatter-hoarder-mediated seed fate.

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Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) germination and survival in black-grama (Bouteloua eriopoda) grassland: relations between microsite and heteromyid rodent (Dipodomys spp.) impact

Cited by 18 publications

References 26 publications

Can the invasive European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) assume the soil engineering role of locally-extinct natives?

Can the invasive European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) assume the soil engineering role of locally-extinct natives?

Animal foraging as a mechanism for sediment movement and soil nutrient development: Evidence from the semi-arid Australian woodlands and the Chihuahuan Desert

Seed fate and decision‐making processes in scatter‐hoarding rodents

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