Seeds in the guts: can seed traits explain seed survival after being digested by wild ungulates?

Abstract

Plants inhabiting open landscapes are often dispersed by ungulates and are expected to be adapted to this type of dispersal through their seed traits. To find which traits help seeds survive the passage through digestion of wild ungulates, we conducted a comprehensive feeding experiment with almost forty species of plants and three species of ungulates. We fed specified numbers of seeds to the animals, collected the dung, and germinated the dung content. We explored whether seed morphological traits and seed nutrient contents are good predictors of seed survival after passage through the ungulate digestive system. We also tested how the seed survival differed after the passage through different ungulate species. To find answers, we used GLMM with beta-binomial distribution and animal and plant species as random factor, respectively. We found that species survival and germination success were negatively correlated to seed elongation and the thickness of the seed coat. Even though phylogenetically correct GLMM did not yield significant results, when we tested species from commonly represented families, separately (legumes and grasses compared to all other species) different traits had statistically significant effects. In the case of seed elongation, the effect changed direction from negative to positive when legumes and grasses were left out. Our results suggest that seed traits enabling species survival after passage through the digestive tract are strongly phylogenetically conserved and different groups of plants evolved different ways of adapting to grazing pressure and utilize it for dispersal.