Seed predation and climate impacts on reproductive variation in temperate forests of the southeastern USA

Climatic effects on tree recruitment will be determined by the interactive effects of fecundity and seed predation. Evaluating how insect and vertebrate seed predators mediate tree reproductive responses to climate depends on long-term studies of seed production, development, and predation. In this study, our objectives were to (1) assess the effects of...

Granivory of invasive, naturalized, and native plants in communities differentially susceptible to invasion

Seed predation is an important biotic filter that can influence abundance and spatial distributions of native species through differential effects on recruitment. This filter may also influence the relative abundance of nonnative plants within habitats and the communities' susceptibility to invasion via differences in granivore identity, abundance, and food...

Small-mammal seed predation limits the recruitment and abundance of two perennial grassland forbs

Although post-dispersal seed predators are common and often reduce seed density, their influence on plant population abundance remains unclear. On the one hand, increasing evidence suggests that many plant populations are seed limited, implying that seed predators could reduce plant abundance. On the other hand, it is generally uncertain whether the magnitude of seed...

Seed size and provenance mediate the joint effects of disturbance and seed predation on community assembly

Local plant community assembly is influenced by a series of filters that affect the recruitment and establishment of species. These filters include regional factors that limit seeds of any given species from reaching a local site as well as local interactions such as post-dispersal seed predation and disturbance, which dictate what species actually establish. How these...

Are local filters blind to provenance? Ant seed predation suppresses exotic plants more than natives

The question of whether species' origins influence invasion outcomes has been a point of substantial debate in invasion ecology. Theoretically, colonization outcomes can be predicted based on how species' traits interact with community filters, a process presumably blind to species' origins. Yet, exotic plant introductions commonly result in monospecific...

Tree squirrel habitat selection and predispersal seed predation in a declining subalpine conifer

Differential responses by species to modern perturbations in forest ecosystems may have undesirable impacts on plant-animal interactions. If such disruptions cause declines in a plant species without corresponding declines in a primary seed predator, the effects on the plant could be exacerbated. We examined one such interaction between Pinus...

Effects of Fire, Deer Herbivory, Seed Predation, and Canopy Gaps on Forest Regeneration: A Large-scale Experimental Approach

Pre-dispersal seed predator dynamics at the northern limits of limber pine distribution

Limber pine (Pinus flexilis) is listed provincially as endangered in the northern part of its geographic range (Alberta) due to the high mortality caused by white pine blister rust (WPBR) (Cronartium ribicola) and mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae), and limited regeneration opportunities due to fire exclusion. In the case of an endangered species, seed...

Pondberry (Lindera melissifolia) seed predators

Pondberry is an endangered, dioecious, deciduous shrub that grows in periodically flooded forests of the southeastern United States of America. Pondbeny is a clonal plant. Each female stem grows up to two meters tall and may produce many red drupes. The probability of dispersed seeds to survive to germination and beyond is unknown in the species. For this study, six...