Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-mzp66 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T07:33:28.620Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Post-dispersal seed predation and seed bank persistence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2008

P. E. Hulme
P. E. Hulme*
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Durham, Science Laboratories, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
*
*Fax: 91 374 3741 E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examines whether post-dispersal seed predators could be an important selective force in determining the seed bank strategies of grassland plants. It tests the hypothesis that species with persistent seed banks should sustain proportionally less predation of buried seeds than species which have transient seed banks and that this should be true irrespective of seed size. Results are drawn from a field experiment examining the relative susceptibility of surface versus buried seeds for 19 herbaceous taxa exhibiting different degrees of seed bank persistence. The data were consistent with the hypothesis that seed predators (rodents) influence the seed bank characteristics of seeds. Rodents removed proportionally more large seeds than small seeds and removed a smaller proportion of seeds with persistent rather than transient seed banks, independently of seed size. On average, burial reduced seed removal by almost 50%. The decrease in rates of seed removal following burial was marked for seeds with persistent seed banks but negligible for seeds with transient seed banks. Herbaceous plants with relatively large seeds (seed mass > 1 mg) that form persistent seed banks were either completely avoided or only consumed in small quantities by rodents. In contrast, large-seeded species with transient seed banks suffer high rates of seed predation. Models of life-history evolution predict trade-offs between seed dormancy and seed mass since dormancy and seed size are correlated traits that both reduce risk in variable environments and thus will show patterns of negative covariation. This paper presents an alternative explanation for this trade-off based on experimental evidence of a negative relationship between seed bank persistence and predation risk.

Keywords

dormancyherbivoryrodentsseed dispersalseed size
Type
Ecology
Information
Seed Science Research , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , December 1998 , pp. 513 - 519
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

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

Abramsky, Z. (1983) Experiments on seed predation by rodents and ants in the Israeli desert. Oecologia 57, 328–332.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baskin, J.M. and Baskin, C.C. (1989) Physiology of dormancy and germination in relation to seed bank ecology. pp 53–66in Leck, M.A., Parker, V.T., Simpson, R.L. (Eds) Ecology of soil seed banks. Academic Press, San Diego.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, J.S. and Venable, D.L. (1986) Evolutionary ecology of seed bank annuals in temporally varying environments. American Naturalist 127, 31–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, J.S. and Venable, D.L. (1991) Life history evolution of seed-bank annuals in response to seed predation. Evolutionary Ecology 5, 12–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casper, B.B. (1988) Post-dispersal seed predation may select for wind dispersal but not seed number per dispersal unit in Cryptantha flava. Oikos 52, 27–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. and Moore, D.M. (1987) Flora of the British Isles. 3rd edition. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Culver, D.C. and Beattie, A.J. (1978) Myrmecochory in Viola: Dynamics of seed-ant interactions in some West Virginia species. Journal of Ecology 66, 53–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisenberg, J.F. (1981) The mammalian radiations. An analysis of trends in evolution, adaptation and behaviour. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ellner, S. (1987) Competition and dormancy: a reanalysis and review. American Naturalist, 130, 798–803.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenner, M. (1992) Seeds. The ecology of regeneration in plant communities. Wallingford, CAB INTERNATIONAL.Google Scholar
Grime, J.P. (1989) Seed banks in ecological perspective. pp xv–xxiin Leck, M.A., Parker, V.T., Simpson, R.L. (Eds) Ecology of soil seed banks. San Diego, Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendry, G.A.F., Thompson, K., Moss, C.J, Edwards, E. and Thorpe, P.C. (1994) Seed persistence – a correlation between seed longevity in the soil and ortho-dihydroxyphenol concentration. Functional Ecology 8, 658–664.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herrera, C.M. (1984) Seed dispersal and fitness determinants in wild rose: Combined effects of hawthorn, birds, mice, and browsing ungulates. Oecologia 63, 386–393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hodgson, J.G., Grime, J.P., Hunt, R. and Thompson, K. (1994) The electronic comparative plant ecology. London, Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar
Hulme, P.E. (1993) Post-dispersal seed predation by small mammals. Symposium of the Zoological Society of London 65, 268–287.Google Scholar
Hulme, P.E. (1994) Rodent post-dispersal seed predation in grassland: magnitude and sources of variation. Journal of Ecology 82, 645–652.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hulme, P.E. (1997) Post-dispersal seed predation and the establishment of vertebrate dispersed plants in Mediterranean scrublands. Oecologia 111, 91–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hulme, P.E. (1998) Post-dispersal seed predation: consequences for plant demography and evolution. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 1, 32–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janzen, D.H. (1982) Removal of seeds from horse dung by tropical rodents: influence of habitat and amount of dung. Ecology 63, 1887–1900.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, V.R. and Parker, T. (1990) Seed bank survival and dynamics in sprouting and non-sprouting Arctostaphyllos species. American Midland Naturalist 124, 114–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leck, M.A., Parker, V.T. and Simpson, R.L. (1989) Ecology of soil seed banks. San Diego, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Leishman, M.R. and Westoby, M. (1994) Hypotheses on seed size: Tests using the semiarid flora of Western New South Wales, Australia. American Naturalist 143, 890–906.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leishman, M.R, Westoby, M. and Jurado, E. (1995) Correlates of seed size variation: a comparison among five temperate floras. Journal of Ecology 83, 517–529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Louda, S.M. (1989) Predation in the dynamics of seed regeneration. pp 25–51in Leck, M.A., Parker, V.T.; Simpson, R.L. (Eds) Ecology of soil seed banks. San Diego, Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mares, M.A. and Rosenzweig, M.L. (1978) Granivory in North and South American deserts: rodents, birds and ants. Ecology 59, 235–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, A.M and Poljakoff-Mayber, A. (1989) The germination of seeds. 4th edition. Oxford, Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Morton, S.R. (1985) Granivory in arid regions: comparison of Australia with North and South America. Ecology 66, 1859–1866.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murdoch, A.J. and Ellis, R.H. (1992) Longevity, viability and dormancy. pp 193–229in Fenner, M. (Ed.) Seeds. The ecology of regeneration in plant communities. Wallingford, CAB INTERNATIONAL.Google Scholar
NAG (1985) National Algorithm Group GLIM 3.77, Royal Statistical Society, London.Google Scholar
Nelson, J.F. and Chew, R.M. (1977) Factors affecting seed reserves in the soil of a Mojave Desert ecosystem, Rock Valley, Nye County, Nevada. American Midland Naturalist 97, 300–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelz, H-J. (1989) Ecological aspects of damage to sugar beet seeds by Apodemus sylvaticus. pp 34–48in Putman, R.J. (Ed.) Mammals as pests. London, Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar
Rees, M. (1993). Trade-offs among dispersal strategies in British plants. Nature 366, 150–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reichman, O.J. (1979) Desert granivore feeding and its impact on seed densities and distributions. Ecology 60, 1085–1092.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherbrooke, W.C. (1976) Differential acceptance of toxic jojoba seed (Simondsia chinesis) by four Sonoran Desert heteromyid rodents. Ecology 57, 596–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sokal, R.R. and Rohlf, F.J. (1995) Biometry (3rd edition). New York, WH Freeman and Company.Google Scholar
Thompson, K. (1987) Seeds and seed banks. New Phytologist 106, 23–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, K. (1992) The functional ecology of seed banks. pp 231–258in Fenner, M. (Ed.) Seeds. The ecology of regeneration in plant communities. Wallingford, CAB INTERNATIONAL.Google Scholar
Thompson, K., Band, S.R. and Hodgson, J.G. (1993) Seed size and shape predict persistence in soil. Functional Ecology 7, 236–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Venable, D.L. (1989) Modelling the evolutionary ecology of seed banks. pp 67–87in Leck, M.A., Parker, V.T., Simpson, R.L. (Eds) Ecology of soil seed banks. San Diego, Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Venable, D.L. and Brown, J.S. (1988) The selective interactions of dispersal, dormancy and seed size as adaptations for reducing risk in variable environments. American Naturalist 131, 360–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar