Authors
Ana I García‐Cervigón, Magdalena Żywiec, Miguel Delibes, Alberto Suárez-Esteban, Ramón Perea, José M Fedriani
Publication date
2018/7
Journal
Oikos
Volume
127
Issue
7
Pages
1001-1013
Publisher
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Description
Microsites where seeds arrive during the dispersal process determine plant reproductive success, affecting the quality of dispersal. Despite their crucial role for plant recruitment, very few studies have addressed spatio–temporal variations in microsites of seed arrival in complex seed‐disperser networks. Using an endozoochorous dispersal system, we characterized the microsites of seed arrival of eight fleshy‐fruited plant species dispersed by five mammal species during two consecutive seasons across three sites in a Mediterranean environment (n = 383 feces with seeds; 261 453 seeds). We evaluated spatial and temporal variations in the probability of a seed to arrive at open microsites or at microsites with varying plant cover, considering selection by frugivores and assessing the extent to which seeds of particular species arrived under conspecifics or heterospecifics. We found strong spatio–temporal …
Total citations
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