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- Title
SEED DISPERSAL OF DESERT ANNUALS.
- Authors
Venable, D. Lawrence; Flores-Martinez, Arturo; Muller-Landau, Helene C.; Barron-Gafford, Greg; Becerra, Judith X.
- Abstract
We quantified seed dispersal in a guild of Sonoran Desert winter desert annuals at a protected natural field site in Tucson, Arizona, USA. Seed production was suppressed under shrub canopies, in the open areas between shrubs, or both by applying an herbicide prior to seed set in large, randomly assigned removal plots (10-30 m diameter). Seedlings were censused along transects crossing the reproductive suppression borders shortly after germination. Dispersal kernels were estimated for Pectocarya recurvata and Schismus barbatus from the change in seedling densities with distance from these borders via inverse modeling. Estimated dispersal distances were short, with most seeds traveling less than a meter. The adhesive seeds of P. recur vata went farther than the small S. barbatus seeds, which have no obvious dispersal adaptation. Seeds dispersed farther downslope than upslope and farther when dispersing into open areas than when dispersing into shrubs. Dispersal distances were short relative to the pattern of spatial heterogeneity created by the shrub and open space mosaics. This suggests that dispersal could contribute to local population buildup, possibly facilitating species coexistence. Overall, these results support the hypothesis that escape in time via delayed germination is likely to be more important for desert annuals than escape in space.
- Subjects
SONORAN Desert; SEED dispersal; PLANT physiology; SEED pods; PLANT canopies; GERMINATION; PLANT diversity; PLANT communities; BOTANICAL research
- Publication
Ecology, 2008, Vol 89, Issue 8, p2218
- ISSN
0012-9658
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1890/07-0386.1