Spitting seeds from the cud: a review of an endozoochory exclusive to ruminants

Given their strong masticatory system and the powerful microbial digestion inside their complex guts, mammalian ruminants have been frequently considered seed predators rather than seed dispersers. A number of studies, however, have observed that ruminants are able to transport many viable seeds long distances, either attached to the hair or hooves (i.e., epizoochory) or inside their body after ingesting them (i.e., endozoochory). However, very few studies have investigated a modality of endozoochory exclusive to ruminants: the spitting of usually large-sized seeds while chewing the cud. A systematic review of the published information about this type of endozoochory shows a marked scarcity of studies. Nonetheless, at least 48 plant species belonging to 21 families are dispersed by ruminants in this manner. Most of these plants are shrubs and trees, have fleshy or dry fruits with large-sized seeds, and are seldom dispersed via defecation. Many cases have been observed in tropical areas, where more frugivorous ruminant species occur, but other records are from temperate and dry areas, covering thus all continents except Antarctica. Twenty-one species of ruminants from 18 genera have been reported as endozoochore spitters. They involve domestic and wild species belonging to the families Tragulidae, Cervidae, and Bovidae. This suggests that almost any ruminant species could potentially eat fruits and regurgitate large hard seeds during rumination. Likely, this seed dispersal mechanism has been neglected due to the difficulty of observing rumination behavior and locating spat seeds. Further research on the potential of wild and domestic ruminant species as long-distance seed dispersers through spitting seeds from the cud appears particularly important given their increasing pervasiveness and abundance worldwideinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

II Jornadas de la Sociedad Española para la Conservación y Estudio de Los Mamíferos (SECEM) Soria 7-9 diciembre 1995

Seguimiento de una reintroducción de corzo (Capreolus capreolus) en ambiente mediterráneo. Dispersión y área de campeoModelos de distribución de los insectívoros ern la Península IbéricaDieta anual del zorro, Vulpes vulpes, en dos hábitats del Parque Nacional de DoñanaDesarrollo juvenil del cráneo en las poblaciones ibéricas de gato montés, Felis silvestris Schreber, 1777Presencia y expansión del visón americano (Mustela vison) en las provincias de Teruel y Castellón (Este de España).Preferencias de hábitat invernal de la musaraña común (Crocidura russula) en un encinar fragmentado de la submeseta norteUso de cámaras automáticas para la recogida de información faunística.Dieta del lobo en dos zonas de Asturias (España) que difieren en carga ganadera.Consumo de frutos y dispersión de semillas de serbal (Sorbus aucuparia L.) por zorros y martas en la cordillera Cantábrica occidentalEvaluación de espermatozoides obtenidos postmorten en el ciervo.Frecuencia de aparición de diferentes restos de conejo en excrementos de lince y zorroAtlas preliminar de los mamíferos de Soria (España)Censo y distribución de la marmota alpina (Marmota marmota) en Navarra.Trampeo fotográfico del género Martes en el Parque Nacional de Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici (Lleida)Peer reviewe

Frutos, semillas, y mamíferos frugívoros: diversidad funcional de interacciones poco estudiadas

Peer reviewe

Los mamíferos frugívoros prefieren frutos de cítricos infectados por Penicillium digitatum: ¿se equivocaba Janzen?

Janzen (1977) propuso que los vertebrados frugívoros prefieren los frutos sanos frente a los infectados por hongos y bacterias dado que los microbiosproducen compuestos tóxicos y antibióticos y, además, reducen el valor nutritivo de los frutos infectados. Valoramos dicha hipótesis mediante experimentosde campo en los que ofrecimos tres variedades comerciales de frutos del género Citrus sanos e infectados por Penicillium digitatum.Sorprendentemente, los frugívoros (principalmente conejos Oryctolagus cuniculus y roedores como la rata negra Rattus rattus y ratones, probablemente,Mus spretus y Apodemus sylvaticus) prefirieron siempre los cítricos infectados a los frutos "control" sanos. En concreto, el consumo de frutosinfectados de las tres variedades estudiadas fue hasta 32 veces mayor en comparación con el consumo de frutos sanos. Proponemos tres hipótesisno excluyentes que podrían explicar la preferencia de los frutos infectados por mamíferos y otros vertebrados frugívoros

A spatially-explicit analysis of Paysandisia archon attack on the endemic Mediterranean dwarf palm

[eng] Autochthonous plant species are heavily threatened by the increasing spread of invasive insects. The spatial distribution of invasive species' hosts is likely to play a pivotal role in the establishment and further expansion of the invading species; more specifically, distance and density dependent (DDD) processes linked to plant spatial arrangement are crucial in determining susceptibility to attack, but they have usually been overlooked in invasive research. We take a spatially explicit approach to evaluate potential DDD processes in the interaction between Paysandisia archon, a tropical lepidopteran recently introduced in Spain, and the endemic Mediterranean dwarf palm (Chamaerops humilis) in Mallorca (Balearic Islands). Specifically, we used spatial marked point pattern analyses, which allowed testing whether DDD processes affect attack probability and intensity on three dwarf palm populations corresponding to three different invasion phases (i.e., infestation core, early expansion, and expansion front). Our approach also allowed evaluation of whether and how intrinsic palm traits (size, sex) alter the proneness to P. archon attack over a range of spatial scales. The occurrence and nature of DDD effects on C. humilis performance varied largely among localities. At the infestation core, our analyses revealed positive density dependence, i.e., reduced damage at high densities or proximity to conspecific neighbors. By contrast, the early expansion locality showed negative density dependence of C. humilis performance, whereas at the expansion front, there was no evidence of DDD effects. Larger palms were consistently more prone to P. archon attack than small ones up to scales of 50 m. We found no evidence that palm sex altered the probability of attack by P. archon. Our results highlight the importance of spatially explicit analyses for assessing invasive events and point to the need of early interventions and prioritizing management efforts on larger palms in order to guarantee the conservation of autochthonous dwarf palm populations

Pathogen life-cycle leaves footprint on the spatial distribution of recruitment of their host plants

Interactions between established and recruiting plants play an important role in species coexistence in natural plant communities. However, our knowledge on the particular ecological drivers of these interactions is still limited. We use spatial point pattern analysis to study the spatial patterns of recruitment and infection in two plant-pathogen systems, each involving a fungus with a different life cycle: the pair Quercus faginea-Trabutia quercina and the triad Crataegus monogyna-Gymnosporangium sp.-Juniperus oxycedrus. Our results show that T. quercina, an autoecious fungus, may act as a stabilizing mechanism in the population dynamics of Q. faginea. In turn, the effect of the heteroecious Gymnosporangium sp. on C. monogyna recruitment was more related to distance from the alternate host J. oxycedrus than to distance from conspecifics. These results demonstrate that the complexity of pathogen life cycle may impact recruitment and the development of interspecific plant-plant interactions in real plant communities.This study was conducted under the projects COEXMED (CGL 2012-36776) and COEXMED II (CGL 2015-69118-C2-1-P) of the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MEC) and FEDER funds from the EU. AJP was supported by a FPI grant from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCIU/BES-2016-077688) associated to COEXMED II project

Frugivoría y dispersión de semillas por mamíferos carnívoros: rasgos funcionales

Muchas especies de mamíferos carnívoros (Orden Carnivora) consumen frutos carnosos, transportan semillas en sus tractos digestivos y las defecansin dañarlas en condiciones apropiadas para la germinación. En este artículo, revisamos el conocimiento adquirido sobre este mutualismo en lasúltimas tres décadas, desde que tres trabajos pioneros revelaron la importancia de los carnívoros como dispersores de semillas en ecosistemastemplados. Nos centramos en los rasgos funcionales de los carnívoros consumiendo frutos y diseminando semillas, haciendo especial énfasis ensus diferencias con las aves, el principal grupo de vertebrados frugívoros en ecosistemas templados. Los carnívoros no están sujetos a las restriccionesfenológicas o morfológicas que típicamente limitan el consumo de determinados frutos en muchas especies de aves. Consumen preferentementefrutos cuyos atributos son compartidos con muchas especies de frutos cultivados por el hombre, lo que explica el consumo frecuente deéstos en paisajes antrópicos. Sus amplios requerimientos espaciales favorecen la dispersión de semillas a larga distancia, mientras que su generalismoen relación al hábitat favorece el flujo de semillas entre hábitats contrastados. De este modo, los carnívoros promueven la conectividadentre poblaciones vegetales y la colonización. Estas funciones ecológicas son clave para las comunidades vegetales nativas, especialmente en escenariosde cambios de uso de suelo. Sin embargo, estos patrones de dispersión de semillas pueden contribuir a la invasión de plantas exóticas.Aún ignoramos en gran medida el papel de los carnívoros en términos cuantitativos de la dispersión de semillas y las diferencias funcionales entreespecies dentro del gremio. La integración de muestreos clásicos e innovadoras técnicas moleculares y de análisis espacial promete aportar conocimientoinédito en estas cuestiones

Genotyping faeces links individuals to their diet

The detection of individual variation in foraging behaviour within wild mammal populations requires large sample sizes and relies on the multifold re-sampling of individuals. However, limits for observational studies are posed by the rarity and nocturnal or otherwise elusive habits of many mammals. We propose that the detection of foraging variation within populations of mammals may be facilitated if conventional diet analysis from faeces is combined with DNA-based individual identification methods using genetic fingerprinting”” from faeces. We applied our approach to a coyote (Canis latrans) population, and showed how individuals may vary from one another in their diet profiles. Two main groups of coyotes were distinguished on the basis of their relative use of small mammals and other vertebrates”” as primary food sources, and these two groups were further subdivided on the basis of their relative use of other vertebrates”” and fruit as secondary food sources. We show that, unless a faecal sampling scheme is used that maximizes the number of different individuals included in a survey, individual foraging variation that is left unaccounted for may result in downwardly biased faecal diet diversity estimates. Our approach allows the re-sampling of individuals over time and space, and thus may be generally useful for the testing of optimal foraging theory hypotheses in mammals and also has conservation applications.Peer reviewe

Can anthropogenic linear gaps increase plant abundance and diversity?

Context: Seed-dispersing animals often move along “linear gaps” (linear anthropogenic features such as roads and trails that contain little vegetation), especially in densely-vegetated landscapes. As a result, linear gaps and their verges may receive more seeds than adjacent habitats. In addition, linear gap verges may provide more suitable conditions for plant establishment than neighboring habitats. In this way, linear gaps may increase plant abundance and diversity, and facilitate connectivity of native and non-native plant populations, ultimately increasing plant diversity in the landscape. Objectives: We reviewed current evidence for the potential of anthropogenic linear gaps to increase plant abundance and diversity, and for the mechanisms involved. Methods: We reviewed peer-reviewed literature published up to December 31st, 2014. Results: Most (69.2 %) studies found significantly higher plant abundance and/or diversity in linear gap verges than in adjacent habitats. This suggests that linear gaps can increase plant abundance and diversity, and possibly facilitate population spread. However, there was a strong bias toward the study of exotic species. In addition, there were few mechanistic studies to allow estimation of the relative contributions of dispersal and post-dispersal mechanisms operating in linear gaps. Conclusions: Future studies should focus on entire plant communities, not just exotic species, and should allow identification of the mechanisms by which linear gaps increase plant abundance and diversity. With this knowledge in hand, we will be in a better position to understand whether the net benefit of linear gaps for plant diversity in general outweigh their facilitation of the spread of exotic species