Viability of small seeds found in feces of the Central American tapir on Barro Colorado Island, Panama

Capece, Paula I.; Aliaga-Rossel, Enzo; Jansen, Patrick A.

doi:10.1111/j.1749-4877.2012.00313.x

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 40 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…acuteserrata colonized the understory of pine forests and established successfully via the rodent-mediated dispersal of acorns. Although natural forest regeneration and succession may be influenced by many factors (e.g., post-dispersal seed survival) [8], [31], [53], [54], our study highlights the importance of the dispersal behavior of small rodents and their potential contribution to the invasion of oak into pine forests, better explaining the succession patterns in oak-pine mixed forests in the Qinling Mountains of China.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Does Animal-Mediated Seed Dispersal Facilitate the Formation of Pinus armandii-Quercus aliena var. acuteserrata Forests?

Wang

et al. 2014

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Pinus armandii and Quercus aliena var. acuteserrata mixed forest is one of the major forest types in the Qinling Mountains, China. P. armandii is considered to be a pioneer species during succession and it is usually invaded by late successional Q. aliena var. acuteserrata. However, the mechanism that underlies its invasion remains unclear. In the present study, we tracked seed dispersal of P. armandii and Q. aliena var. acuteserrata using coded plastic tags in the western, middle and eastern Qinling Mountains to elucidate the invasion process in the mixed forests. Our results indicated that the seeds of both P. armandii and Q. aliena var. acuteserrata were removed rapidly in the Qinling Mountains, and there were no differences in the seed removal rates between the two species. There were significant differences in rodent seed-eating and caching strategies between the two tree species. For P. armandii, seeds were more likely to be eaten in situ than those of Q. aliena var. acuteserrata in all plots. By contrast, the acorns of Q. aliena var. acuteserrata were less frequently eaten in situ, but more likely to be removed and cached. Q. aliena var. acuteserrata acorns had significantly longer dispersal distances than P. armandii seeds in all plots. Although P. armandii seeds were less likely to be dispersed into the Q. aliena var. acuteserrata stands, over 30% of the released acorns were transported into the P. armandii stands where they established five seedlings. Based on the coupled recruitment patterns of P. armandii and Q. aliena var. acuteserrata, we suggest that the animal-mediated seed dispersal contributes to the formation of Pinus armandii-Quercus aliena var. acuteserrata forests.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Does Animal-Mediated Seed Dispersal Facilitate the Formation of Pinus armandii-Quercus aliena var. acuteserrata Forests?

Wang

et al. 2014

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Trees bearing large fruits and seeds often depend on mammals and birds for dispersal of their seeds [5]–[6] to increase the probability of seedling recruitment far from parent trees [7]–[10]. Although a large proportion of seeds are eaten and killed by seed consuming animals, some are cached and may eventually escape predation and result in seedling establishment if the seeds are not recovered [1], [11]–[13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incorporating Cache Management Behavior into Seed Dispersal: The Effect of Pericarp Removal on Acorn Germination

Zhang

Bartlow

et al. 2014

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Selecting seeds for long-term storage is a key factor for food hoarding animals. Siberian chipmunks (Tamias sibiricus) remove the pericarp and scatter hoard sound acorns of Quercus mongolica over those that are insect-infested to maximize returns from caches. We have no knowledge of whether these chipmunks remove the pericarp from acorns of other species of oaks and if this behavior benefits seedling establishment. In this study, we tested whether Siberian chipmunks engage in this behavior with acorns of three other Chinese oak species, Q. variabilis, Q. aliena and Q. serrata var. brevipetiolata, and how the dispersal and germination of these acorns are affected. Our results show that when chipmunks were provided with sound and infested acorns of Quercus variabilis, Q. aliena and Q. serrata var. brevipetiolata, the two types were equally harvested and dispersed. This preference suggests that Siberian chipmunks are incapable of distinguishing between sound and insect-infested acorns. However, Siberian chipmunks removed the pericarp from acorns of these three oak species prior to dispersing and caching them. Consequently, significantly more sound acorns were scatter hoarded and more infested acorns were immediately consumed. Additionally, indoor germination experiments showed that pericarp removal by chipmunks promoted acorn germination while artificial removal showed no significant effect. Our results show that pericarp removal allows Siberian chipmunks to effectively discriminate against insect-infested acorns and may represent an adaptive behavior for cache management. Because of the germination patterns of pericarp-removed acorns, we argue that the foraging behavior of Siberian chipmunks could have potential impacts on the dispersal and germination of acorns from various oak species.

show abstract

“…Juncus spp.). Thus, our study adds to a growing body of evidence (Myers et al ., ; Bruun & Poschlod, ; Capece et al ., ) suggesting that the practice of assuming frugivory and dispersal syndromes from seed size and morphology alone can lead to erroneous conclusions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A mammoth mouthful? A test of the idea that larger animals ingest larger seeds

Chen

Moles

2015

Global Ecology and Biogeography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Aim It has been widely assumed that large seeds generally require large animals to ingest and disperse them. However, this relationship has only been quantified in single animal groups (e.g. birds) and in a few communities. Our goal was to provide the first broad-scale study of the relationship between animal body mass and ingested seed size.Location Global. MethodsWe compiled a dataset of 13,135 unique animal × seed interactions, animal body masses and seed sizes in these interactions, across all vertebrate groups (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals). ResultsContrary to expectations, ingested seed size was negatively related to animal body mass. This negative relationship was largely driven by large ungulates ingesting small and dry seeds, and analyses excluding either ungulates or seeds with non-fleshy fruit types showed a positive relationship between animal body mass and ingested seed size. Large animals ingested both seeds with a larger maximum size (the 95th quantile had a positive slope) and a smaller minimum size (the 5th quantile had a negative slope). Larger animals ingest larger seeds from fleshy fruits but smaller seeds from non-fleshy fruits. A significant positive relationship was found between animal size and the number of seed species ingested. Main conclusionsOur data show that one of the assumptions that has underpinned the study of animal-seed interactions does not hold true across the full range of animal taxa and fruit types. These findings shed new light on theories about which types of plant species might be at risk if large animals go extinct, and cast doubt on the generality of a few theories (e.g. optimal diet theory, fruit-size hypothesis) about the relationship between frugivores and seeds.

show abstract

Viability of small seeds found in feces of the Central American tapir on Barro Colorado Island, Panama

Cited by 13 publications

References 40 publications

Does Animal-Mediated Seed Dispersal Facilitate the Formation of Pinus armandii-Quercus aliena var. acuteserrata Forests?

Does Animal-Mediated Seed Dispersal Facilitate the Formation of Pinus armandii-Quercus aliena var. acuteserrata Forests?

Incorporating Cache Management Behavior into Seed Dispersal: The Effect of Pericarp Removal on Acorn Germination

A mammoth mouthful? A test of the idea that larger animals ingest larger seeds

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About