Seed Rain in a Tropical Dry Forest and Adjacent Home Gardens in the Yucatan

Abstract

Tropical home gardens are widely recognized as reservoirs of biodiversity. Typically, Maya home gardens have an area of intensive management and one of extensive management. In the latter, some wild plant species may find safe sites for establishment, since they exhibit a high degree of similarity (in terms in plant species composition) to the surrounding forest and are dominated by plants with fleshy fruit. Therefore, this may attract frugivorous animals, which in turn may generate some seed rain. The objective of our study was to compare seed rain in the extensively managed areas of home gardens and in the surrounding forest during the fruiting peak in a rural landscape in the Yucatan. We assessed seed rain using seed traps in two habitats: the extensively managed areas of home gardens and an adjacent tropical forest. Seed rain was more abundant, denser and more diverse in the home gardens than in the adjacent forest. Approximately one quarter of the seeds recorded are from species shared between the forest and home gardens, suggesting there is notable seed exchange between these habitats. Also 50% of the seed species exclusively found in home gardens are allochthonous, likely rare species from the forest. In general, our results suggest that home gardens—particularly their extensively managed areas—are effective seed traps for forest species.

Non-random distribution of maax pepper plants (Capsicum annum var. glabriusculum) in Mayan homegardens: Effects on plant size, fruit yield and viral diseases

“…Wild pepper also grows faster and produces more fruits beneath moderate shade, suggesting that this species is adapted to shaded environments (Valiente-Banuet and Gutierrez-Ochoa 2016; Jimenez-Leyva et al 2022). Although homegardens are dominated by eshy-fruited trees that offer abundant feeding resources to birds year-round (Fernandes and Nair 2001;Villicaña-Hernández et al 2020), no study has assessed whether wild pepper is associated with woody perennials in this system where radiation levels range from full sunlight to deep shade (Karyono 1990;Gillespie et al 1993). Thus, it would be also interesting to see if this variation affects plant size or fruit yield.…”

Ecological knowledge, use and management of maax ik (Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum (Dunal) Heiser & Pickersgill) in a rural Mayan community

“…The goal of this paper was to assess the ecological knowledge, uses and management practices of maax ik in a small, rural village of central of Yucatan of Maya ethnicity known as San Bernardo. We selected this community because it is a typical Maya community of central Yucatan where the Maya is the first language and traditional agroecosystems as well as patches of surrounding secondary tropical dry forest are still actively being managed (Rejón-Marrufo 2020, Villicaña-Hernández et al 2020. Previous research on the topic suggests that gathering is more intense and sometimes destructive (i.e., branches and even the whole plant are harvested) in the north of Mexico where wild chile plants are mainly available in patchy natural vegetation, associated with fleshy-fruited perennials (e.g., Tewksbury et al 1999, Perramond 2005, Rivera-Lárraga 2022.…”