Diplochory in Ulex parviflorus Pourr

López-Vila, J.R.; Garcı́a-Fayos, P.

doi:10.1016/j.actao.2005.03.008

Cited by 15 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Harvester ants can have strong direct and indirect effects on regeneration and population densities of plants (Brown and Human, 1997;Mull and MacMahon, 1997;Willott et al, 2000;López-Vila and García-Fayos, 2005;DeFalco et al, 2009;Arnan et al, 2010). Seed removal rates by ants may be influenced by seed size, morphology and chemistry, as well as by seed availability (Brown et al, 1979;Andersen et al, 2000;Willott et al, 2000;Azcárate et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foraging behaviour of harvesting ants determines seed removal and dispersal

et al. 2010

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foraging behaviour of harvesting ants determines seed removal and dispersal

et al. 2010

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“…This suggests that the first phase of myrmecochory, i.e. Furthermore, the seeds that are not immediately dispersed by ants can enter the seed bank of the soil and become dormant for several years, which allows plant species to disperse their diaspores not only at a spatial but also at a temporal scale under more favourable conditions of germination (Bulow-Olsen, 1984;Venable & Brown, 1988;Gorb & Gorb, 2000;Lopez-Vila & García-Fayos, 2005). Later on, however, the efficiency of seed removal by ant foragers can decrease as soon as satiation effects take place in the ant colony.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The multiplicity of ant colonies, each acting as a vector of myrmecohorous plants, could contribute to enlarge the directions of seed dispersal and could result in an overall diversification of the microsites in which the seeds will be deposited by ants. Furthermore, the seeds that are not immediately dispersed by ants can enter the seed bank of the soil and become dormant for several years, which allows plant species to disperse their diaspores not only at a spatial but also at a temporal scale under more favourable conditions of germination (Bulow-Olsen, 1984;Venable & Brown, 1988;Gorb & Gorb, 2000;Lopez-Vila & García-Fayos, 2005). However, this last hypothesis does not hold for the great celandine, the seeds of which lack dormancy (Kang & Primack, 1991), meaning that any seeds that will not germinate in the autumn will not contribute to plant dispersal.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of seed abundance on seed processing and dispersal by the red ant Myrmica rubra

Detrain

Bologna

2018

Ecological Entomology

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1. Myrmecochory sensu stricto is an ant-plant mutualism in which non-granivorous ants disperse plant diaspores after feeding on their nutrient-rich seed appendage, the elaiosome. Phenological traits associated with the diaspore can influence the behaviour of ants and thus their ultimate efficiency as seed dispersers.2. This study investigated how a contrasting availability of seeds (20 vs. 200 seeds) from the diplochorous Chelidonium majus (Papaveraceae, Linnaeus) plant species influences the behaviour of Myrmica rubra (Formicidae, Linnaeus) ants, from the retrieval of seeds until their dispersal outside the ant nest.3. Regardless of seed abundance, the ants collected the first diaspores at similar rates. Then, seed retrieval sped up over time for large seed sources until satiation took place with only one-third of the tested colonies wholly depleting abundant seed sources.4. No active recruitment by trail-laying ants was triggered, even to an abundant seed source 5. In both conditions of seed abundance, the majority of the diaspores retrieved inside the nest were discarded with the elaiosome removed and were dispersed at similar distances from the nest.6. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the quantity of seeds released by a plant with a dual mode of dispersal can potentially influence the behaviour of ant dispersers and hence the dispersal efficiency derived from myrmecochory.

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“…In a previous analysis of the experiment analyzed here, De Luis et al (2005) found that seedlings of C. albidus (a species with many small seeds and a ballistic dispersion mechanism) and U. parviflorus (a species with one to four larger seeds that are dispersed by explosive dehiscence) were found mainly on microhabitats previously occupied by these species. López-Vila and García-Fayos (2005) found two peaks in an analysis of seed dispersal kernels of U. parviflorus, one under the plant, and a second peak at 130 cm. Seeds were not primarily dispersed further than 180 cm from the mother plant; however, the seeds carry elaiosome, much sought-after by ants, which removed 60% of the seeds on the ground (López-Vila and García-Fayos 2005).…”

Section: Potential Processes and Mechanisms Explaining The Observed Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal and spatial differentiation in seedling emergence may promote species coexistence in Mediterranean fire‐prone ecosystems

Luis¹,

Raventós²,

Wiegand³

et al. 2008

Ecography

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Mediterranean ecosystems are hotspots of species richness where fire is one of the key processes influencing their structure, composition and function. Post-fire seedling emergence constitutes a crucial event in the life cycle of plants and species-specific temporal and spatial patterns of seedling emergence have been hypothesized to contribute to the high diversity in these ecosystems. Here we study the temporal and spatial patterns of seedling emergence observed for the four dominant species (Cistus albidus, Ulex parviflorus, Helianthemum marifolium, Ononis fruticosa) after an experimental fire in a Mediterranean gorse shrubland. In a first analysis we compared the timing of emergence of each species using the Kaplan-Meier method. The spatial component of seedling emergence and the spatiotemporal relationship between different cohorts of the same species were analyzed using recent techniques of spatial point pattern analyses. We found a bimodal temporal pattern of emergence. Emergence of Cistaceae species (H. marifolium and C. albidus) occurred predominantly early after the fire while Fabaceae (O. fruticosa and U. parviflorus) emerged mainly during the following autumn. Individually, all species showed an aggregated spatial pattern and, when testing for pair interactions, we found that the clusters of individual species were spatially segregated. Additionally, the clusters of individual species showed an internal spatial structure where seedlings of different cohorts were spatially segregated. Theoretical models predict that these patterns will promote species coexistence. We identified a number of mechanisms that all have the potential to contribute to the observed pattern formation. However, the potential interaction among these mechanisms are complex and not easy to predict. Our analyses take a significant step forward in studying seedling emergence in fire prone ecosystems since, to our knowledge, this is the first time that both spatial and temporal patterns of all dominant species have been studied together.

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Diplochory in Ulex parviflorus Pourr

Cited by 15 publications

References 30 publications

Foraging behaviour of harvesting ants determines seed removal and dispersal

Foraging behaviour of harvesting ants determines seed removal and dispersal

Impact of seed abundance on seed processing and dispersal by the red ant Myrmica rubra

Temporal and spatial differentiation in seedling emergence may promote species coexistence in Mediterranean fire‐prone ecosystems

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