Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T21:49:15.043Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Secondary removal of Myristica fatua (Myristicaceae) seeds by crabs in Myristica swamp forests in India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2014

Shivani Krishna  and
Hema Somanathan
Shivani Krishna
Affiliation:
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram, CET campus, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala 695016, India
Hema Somanathan*
Affiliation:
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram, CET campus, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala 695016, India
*
1Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Little is known about the role of crabs as seed dispersers and predators. Recently, there has been interest in understanding their influence on plant recruitment in coastal forests. Secondary seed removal by crabs in a swamp-specialist tree, Myristica fatua, was investigated in the rare and patchy freshwater Myristica swamps in the Western Ghats in India. Tethered-line experiments were used to determine the role of crabs as secondary seed-removal agents in two study sites. Crabs transported a large percentage (63.3%) of seeds (n = 60) placed on the forest floor compared with rodents (25%) and other unknown agents (13.3%). Simultaneous choice experiments suggested that the nutrient-rich arils covering seeds were consumed, but there was no evidence for seed predation by crabs. A small percentage (13.3%) of monitored seeds (n = 60) germinated from within crab burrows. The spatial scale of secondary removal by crabs was restricted to < 10 m. In these fragmented swamp forests, secondary removal by crabs retains seeds largely within the swamps, where conditions for their establishment and survival are optimal. Thus, secondary seed removal by crabs could provide temporal and spatial refugia from seed predators such as rodents in Myristica fatua.

Keywords

freshwater crabsnutmegsseed dispersalseed fateseed predationWestern Ghats
Type
Short Communication
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , May 2014 , pp. 259 - 263
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

CAPISTRÁN-BARRADAS, A. & MORENO-CASASOLA, P. 2006. Post-dispersal fruit and seed removal by the crab Gecarcinus lateralis in a coastal forest in Veracruz, Mexico. Biotropica 38:1–7.Google Scholar
CHAMBERS, J. C. & MACMAHON, J. A. 1994. A day in the life of a seed: movements and fates of seeds and their implications for natural and managed systems. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 25:263–292.Google Scholar
CHAMPION, H. G. & SETH, S. K. 1968. A revised survey of the forest types of India. Manager of Publications, New Delhi. 404 pp.Google Scholar
CHANDRAN, M. D. S. & MESTA, D. K. 2001. On the conservation of the Myristica swamps of the Western Ghats. Pp. 1–19 in Uma Shaanker, R., Ganeshaiah, K. N. & Bawa, K. S. (eds.). Forest genetic resources: status, threats, and conservation strategies. Oxford & IBH, New Delhi.Google Scholar
CHANDRAN, M. D. S, MESTA, D. K. & NAIK, M. B. 1999. Myristica swamps of Uttara Kannada District. My Forest 35:217–222.Google Scholar
CHETANA, H. C. & GANESH, T. 2013. Reconciling natural history and species ecology: Myristica beddomei (Myristicaceae) in the Western Ghats, India. Tropical Conservation Science 6:663–673.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CLARK, C. J., POULSEN, J. R., LEVEY, D. J. & OSENBERG, C. W. 2007. Are plant populations seed limited? A critique and meta-analysis of seed addition experiments. American Naturalist 170:128–142.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
CRAWLEY, M. J. 2000. Seed predators and plant population dynamics. Pp. 167–182 in Feener, M. (ed.). Seeds: the ecology of regeneration in plant communities. CAB International, Wallingford.Google Scholar
DALLING, J. W., MULLER-LANDAU, H. C., WRIGHT, S. J. & HUBBELL, S. P. 2002. Role of dispersal in the recruitment limitation of neotropical pioneer species. Journal of Ecology 90:714–727.Google Scholar
DUNHAM, D. W. & GILCHRIST, S. L. 1988. Behavior. Pp. 97–138 in Burggren, W. W. & McMahon, B. R. (eds.). Biology of the land crabs. Cambridge University Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FISHMAN, J. R. & ORTH, R. J. 1996. Effects of predation on Zostera marina L. seed abundance. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 198:11–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FORGET, P.-M. 1996. Removal of seeds of Carapa procera (Meliaceae) by rodents and their fate in rainforest in French Guiana. Journal of Tropical Ecology 12:751–761.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FORGET, P.-M., MERCIER, F. & COLLINET, F. 1999. Spatial patterns of two rodent-dispersed rain forest trees Carapa procera (Meliaceae) and Vouacapoua americana (Caesalpiniaceae) at Paracou, French Guiana. Journal of Tropical Ecology 15:301–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HERRERA, C. M., JORDANO, P., LOPEZ-SORIA, L. & AMAT, J. A. 1994. Recruitment of a mast-fruiting, bird-dispersed tree: bridging frugivore activity and seedling establishment. Ecological Monographs 64:315–344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HOLBROOK, S., REED, D., HANSEN, K. & BLANCHETTE, C. 2000. Spatial and temporal patterns of predation on seeds of the surfgrass Phyllospadix torreyi . Marine Biology 136:739–747.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HOWE, H. F. & SMALLWOOD, J. 1982. Ecology of seed dispersal. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 13:201–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HOWE, H. F. & VANDE KERCKHOVE, G. A. 1981. Removal of wild nutmeg (Virola surinamensis) crops by birds. Ecology 62:1093–1106.Google Scholar
IUCN. 2000. The 2000 IUCN red list of threatened species. IUCN, Gland. 61 pp.Google Scholar
JANZEN, D. H. 1970. Herbivores and the number of tree species in tropical forests. American Naturalist 104:501–552.Google Scholar
LEE, M. A. 1985. The dispersal of Pandanus tectorius by the land crab Cardisoma carnifex . Oikos 45:169–173.Google Scholar
LINDQUIST, E. S., KRAUSS, K. W., GREEN, P. T., O’DOWD, D. J., SHERMAN, P. M. & SMITH, T. J. 2009. Land crabs as key drivers in tropical coastal forest recruitment. Biological Reviews 84:203–223.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
LOUDA, S. M. & ZEDLER, P. H. 1985. Predation in insular plant dynamics: an experimental assessment of post dispersal fruit and seed survival, Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands. American Journal of Botany 72:438–445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MEEHAN, H. J., MCCONKEY, K. R. & DRAKE, D. R. 2005. Early fate of Myristica hypargyraea seeds dispersed by Ducula pacifica in Tonga, Western Polynesia. Austral Ecology 30:374–382.Google Scholar
NATHAN, R. & MULLER-LANDAU, H. C. 2000. Spatial patterns of seed dispersal, their determinants and consequences for recruitment. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 15:278–285.Google Scholar
O’DOWD, D. J. & LAKE, P. S. 1991. Red crabs in rain forest, Christmas Island: removal and fate of fruits and seeds. Journal of Tropical Ecology 7:113–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OSBORNE, K. & SMITH, T. J. 1990. Differential predation on mangrove propagules in open and closed canopy forest habitats. Vegetatio 89:1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RAMESH, B. R., MENON, S. & BAWA, K. S. 1997. A vegetation based approach to biodiversity gap analysis in the Agastyamalai region, Western Ghats, India. Ambio 26:529–536.Google Scholar
SHERMAN, P. M. 2002. Effects of land crabs on seedling densities and distributions in a mainland neotropical rain forest. Journal of Tropical Ecology 18:67–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SMITH, T. J. 1987. Seed predation in relation to tree dominance and distribution in mangrove forests. Ecology 68:266–273.Google Scholar
VANDER WALL, S. B., KUHN, K. M. & BECK, M. J. 2005. Seed removal, seed predation, and secondary dispersal. Ecology 86:801–806.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WENNY, D. G. & LEVEY, D. J. 1998. Directed seed dispersal by bellbirds in a tropical cloud forest. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 95:6204–6207.Google Scholar

Krishna and Somanathan Supplementary Material

Supplementary Video

Download Krishna and Somanathan Supplementary Material(Video)
Video 18 MB