Acknowledgments We thank the Sabah Forestry Department for access to SFR and the Rainforest Discovery Center for use of the canopy tower. JRS is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) grant number PDFMP3_132479/1. We are grateful for the comments of two anonymous reviewers which greatly improved the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Aoki

Ashton

Augspurger

Bagchi

Bohrer

Chesson

Connell

Curran

Damschen

Davies

Fisher

Fontan

Gelman

Green

Greene

Hanski

Hubbell

Itoh

Janzen

Kuparinen

Matlack

Maurer

Maycock

McGill

Nathan

Newbery

Newman

Osada

Poorter

Rees

Ridley

Seidler

Sodhi

Soons

Suzuki

Tackenberg

Tamari

Tilman

Webber

Wells

Westoby

Whitmore

Wilcove

Wright

Ecology and Evolution

English

PubMed

Acknowledgments We thank the Sabah Forestry Department for access to SFR and the Rainforest Discovery Center for use of the canopy tower. JRS is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) grant number PDFMP3_132479/1. We are grateful for the comments of two anonymous reviewers which greatly improved the manuscript.Peer reviewe

Smith, James R

Bagchi, Robert

Ellens, Judith

Kettle, Chris J

Burslem, David F R P

Maycock, Colin R

Khoo, Eyen

Ghazoul, Jaboury

The Open University

Predicting dispersal of auto-gyrating fruit in tropical trees : a case study from the Dipterocarpaceae

James R. Smith

Robert Bagchi

Judith Ellens

Chris J. Kettle

David F. R. P. Burslem

Colin R. Maycock

Eyen Khoo

Jaboury Ghazoul

Crossref

Predicting dispersal of auto-gyrating fruit in tropical trees: a case study from the Dipterocarpaceae

Seed dispersal governs the distribution of plant propagules in the landscape and hence forms the template on which density‐dependent processes act. Dispersal is therefore a vital component of many species coexistence and forest dynamics models and is of applied value in understanding forest regeneration. Research on the processes that facilitate forest regeneration and restoration is given further weight in the context of widespread loss and degradation of tropical forests, and provides impetus to improve estimates of seed dispersal for tropical forest trees. South‐East Asian lowland rainforests, which have been subject to severe degradation, are dominated by trees of the Dipterocarpaceae family which constitute over 40% of forest biomass. Dipterocarp dispersal is generally considered to be poor given their large, gyration‐dispersed fruits. However, there is wide variability in fruit size and morphology which we hypothesize mechanistically underpins dispersal potential through the lift provided to seeds mediated by the wings. We explored experimentally how the ratio of fruit wing area to mass (“inverse wing loading,” IWL) explains variation in seed dispersal kernels among 13 dipterocarp species by releasing fruit from a canopy tower. Horizontal seed dispersal distances increased with IWL, especially at high wind speeds. Seed dispersal of all species was predominantly local, with 90% of seed dispersing <10 m, although maximum dispersal distances varied widely among species. We present a generic seed dispersal model for dipterocarps based on attributes of seed morphology and provide modeled seed dispersal kernels for all dipterocarp species with IWLs of 1–50, representing 75% of species in Borneo.ISSN:2045-775

Predicting dispersal of auto-gyrating fruit in tropical trees : a case study from the Dipterocarpaceae

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