TY - JOUR
T1 - Dispersal of fleshy-fruited species
T2 - A matter of spatial scale?
AU - Kollmann, Johannes
N1 - Funding Information:
I am most grateful to Peter J. Edwards and two anonymous referees for critical comments which greatly improved the manuscript. Work on which this study is based has been supported by an ETH research grant (0-20-326-97).
PY - 2000
Y1 - 2000
N2 - The processes associated with the dispersal of fleshy-fruited species have been an important focus of ecological research during the last two decades. These processes include fruit removal, seed rain, seed predation, seed bank dynamics, germination and establishment. Some of them interfere with the mutualistic interaction of frugivorous birds and fleshy-fruited plants. We might expect such interference to be most pronounced where the intensity of the different processes has a spatial distribution similar to that of the original seed shadow. The central theme of this review is that the main processes associated with dispersal and recruitment act at different spatial scales. To investigate this idea, about 140 publications on dispersal of fleshy-fruited species from 1980 to 2000 were screened for the spatial scaling of these processes. Microhabitat, habitat, landscape, region and biome were the five spatial scales most commonly used. However, the representation of the different scales was not fully balanced; large- scale studies were scarce and most publications considered only one scale. The review reveals some trends in scaling of the main processes of plant dispersal and recruitment. Seed dispersal by birds and seed predation by rodents are strongly determined at the habitat level, and several studies report negative results for contrasts between microhabitats. Germination and seedling establishment, on the other hand, appear to be mainly influenced by differences between microhabitats, though information on larger scales is scarce. Genetic differentiation and phenology of fruiting have mostly been investigated at the habitat, landscape and regional scale, whereas information on the abundance of frugivorous birds and patterns in plant distribution results are available across the full range of scales from the level of the microhabitat to the region and biome. Future research should be directed to the major gaps in our knowledge, i.e. regional and zonal comparisons of the processes associated with dispersal. They should also be more sensitive to scale issues and ideally should have a multi-scaled design.
AB - The processes associated with the dispersal of fleshy-fruited species have been an important focus of ecological research during the last two decades. These processes include fruit removal, seed rain, seed predation, seed bank dynamics, germination and establishment. Some of them interfere with the mutualistic interaction of frugivorous birds and fleshy-fruited plants. We might expect such interference to be most pronounced where the intensity of the different processes has a spatial distribution similar to that of the original seed shadow. The central theme of this review is that the main processes associated with dispersal and recruitment act at different spatial scales. To investigate this idea, about 140 publications on dispersal of fleshy-fruited species from 1980 to 2000 were screened for the spatial scaling of these processes. Microhabitat, habitat, landscape, region and biome were the five spatial scales most commonly used. However, the representation of the different scales was not fully balanced; large- scale studies were scarce and most publications considered only one scale. The review reveals some trends in scaling of the main processes of plant dispersal and recruitment. Seed dispersal by birds and seed predation by rodents are strongly determined at the habitat level, and several studies report negative results for contrasts between microhabitats. Germination and seedling establishment, on the other hand, appear to be mainly influenced by differences between microhabitats, though information on larger scales is scarce. Genetic differentiation and phenology of fruiting have mostly been investigated at the habitat, landscape and regional scale, whereas information on the abundance of frugivorous birds and patterns in plant distribution results are available across the full range of scales from the level of the microhabitat to the region and biome. Future research should be directed to the major gaps in our knowledge, i.e. regional and zonal comparisons of the processes associated with dispersal. They should also be more sensitive to scale issues and ideally should have a multi-scaled design.
KW - Biome
KW - Dispersal processes
KW - Habitat
KW - Landscape
KW - Microhabitat
KW - Multi-scaled analysis
KW - Region
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0034080292&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1078/1433-8319-00003
DO - 10.1078/1433-8319-00003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0034080292
SN - 1433-8319
VL - 3
SP - 29
EP - 51
JO - Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics
JF - Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics
IS - 1
ER -