Employing plant functional groups to advance seed dispersal ecology and conservation

Clare Aslan¹, Noelle G Beckman², Haldre S Rogers³, Judie Bronstein⁴, Damaris Zurell⁵, Florian Hartig⁶, Katriona Shea⁷, Liba Pejchar⁸, Mike Neubert⁹, John Poulsen¹⁰, Janneke HilleRisLambers¹¹, Maria Miriti¹², Bette Loiselle¹³, Edu Effiom¹⁴, Jenny Zambrano¹⁵, Geno Schupp², Gesine Pufal¹⁶, Jeremy Johnson¹⁷, James M Bullock¹⁸, Jedediah Brodie¹⁹, Emilio Bruna¹³, Robert Stephen Cantrell²⁰, Robin Decker²¹, Evan Fricke³, Katie Gurski²², Alan Hastings²¹, Oleg Kogan²³, Onja Razafindratsima²⁴, Manette Sandor²⁵, Sebastian Schreiber²¹, Rebecca Snell²⁶, Christopher Strickland²⁷, Ying Zhou²⁸

Affiliations

¹ Landscape Conservation Initiative, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
² Department of Biology, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA.
³ Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
⁴ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
⁵ Dynamic Macroecology, Landscape Dynamics, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse, Birmensdorf, Switzerland.
⁶ Faculty of Biology and Pre-Clinical Medicine, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße, Regensburg, Germany.
⁷ Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, 208 Mueller Laboratory, University Park, PA, USA.
⁸ Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
⁹ Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA.
¹⁰ Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, USA.
¹¹ Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
¹² Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
¹³ Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
¹⁴ CRS Forestry Commission, Calabar, Nigeria.
¹⁵ National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, 1 Park Place, Annapolis, MD, USA.
¹⁶ Naturschutz & Landschaftsökologie, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
¹⁷ Department of Geography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
¹⁸ Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, UK.
¹⁹ Wildlife Biology Program, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA.
²⁰ Department of Mathematics, University of Miami, 1365 Memorial Drive, Coral Gables, FL, USA.
²¹ University of California-Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
²² Department of Mathematics, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA.
²³ Physics Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA.
²⁴ Department of Biology, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA.
²⁵ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA.
²⁶ Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA.
²⁷ Department of Mathematics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA.
²⁸ Department of Mathematics, Lafayette College, Easton, PA, USA.

PMID: 30895154
PMCID: PMC6420810
DOI: 10.1093/aobpla/plz006

Review

Employing plant functional groups to advance seed dispersal ecology and conservation

Clare Aslan et al. AoB Plants. 2019.

. 2019 Feb 7;11(2):plz006.

doi: 10.1093/aobpla/plz006. eCollection 2019 Apr.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Landscape Conservation Initiative, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
² Department of Biology, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA.
³ Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
⁴ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
⁵ Dynamic Macroecology, Landscape Dynamics, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse, Birmensdorf, Switzerland.
⁶ Faculty of Biology and Pre-Clinical Medicine, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße, Regensburg, Germany.
⁷ Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, 208 Mueller Laboratory, University Park, PA, USA.
⁸ Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
⁹ Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA.
¹⁰ Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, USA.
¹¹ Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
¹² Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
¹³ Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
¹⁴ CRS Forestry Commission, Calabar, Nigeria.
¹⁵ National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, 1 Park Place, Annapolis, MD, USA.
¹⁶ Naturschutz & Landschaftsökologie, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
¹⁷ Department of Geography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
¹⁸ Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, UK.
¹⁹ Wildlife Biology Program, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA.
²⁰ Department of Mathematics, University of Miami, 1365 Memorial Drive, Coral Gables, FL, USA.
²¹ University of California-Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
²² Department of Mathematics, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA.
²³ Physics Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA.
²⁴ Department of Biology, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA.
²⁵ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA.
²⁶ Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA.
²⁷ Department of Mathematics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA.
²⁸ Department of Mathematics, Lafayette College, Easton, PA, USA.

PMID: 30895154
PMCID: PMC6420810
DOI: 10.1093/aobpla/plz006

Abstract

Seed dispersal enables plants to reach hospitable germination sites and escape natural enemies. Understanding when and how much seed dispersal matters to plant fitness is critical for understanding plant population and community dynamics. At the same time, the complexity of factors that determine if a seed will be successfully dispersed and subsequently develop into a reproductive plant is daunting. Quantifying all factors that may influence seed dispersal effectiveness for any potential seed-vector relationship would require an unrealistically large amount of time, materials and financial resources. On the other hand, being able to make dispersal predictions is critical for predicting whether single species and entire ecosystems will be resilient to global change. Building on current frameworks, we here posit that seed dispersal ecology should adopt plant functional groups as analytical units to reduce this complexity to manageable levels. Functional groups can be used to distinguish, for their constituent species, whether it matters (i) if seeds are dispersed, (ii) into what context they are dispersed and (iii) what vectors disperse them. To avoid overgeneralization, we propose that the utility of these functional groups may be assessed by generating predictions based on the groups and then testing those predictions against species-specific data. We suggest that data collection and analysis can then be guided by robust functional group definitions. Generalizing across similar species in this way could help us to better understand the population and community dynamics of plants and tackle the complexity of seed dispersal as well as its disruption.

Keywords: dependency; directed dispersal; dispersal vectors; generalization; mutualism; seed dispersal effectiveness.

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Figures

**Figure 1.**
Seed dispersal exemplifies ecological complexity. Survival to adulthood and the fitness of individual adults are influenced by pre-, mid- and post-dispersal variables including the availability of abiotic and biotic vectors; the behaviours, preferences, morphology and physiology of dispersers; the spatio-temporal heterogeneity in seed deposition locations; and the probability of encountering other mutualists, facilitators, predators, pathogens and competitors following dispersal.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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1. Alvarez-Buylla ER, Martinez-Ramos M. 1990. Seed bank versus seed rain in the regeneration of a tropical pioneer tree. Oecologia 84:314–325. - PubMed
1. Alvarez-Clare S, Kitajima K. 2007. Physical defence traits enhance seedling survival of neotropical tree species. Functional Ecology 21:1044–1054.
1. Aslan CE, Zavaleta ES, Tershy B, Croll D. 2013. Mutualism disruption threatens global plant biodiversity: a systematic review. PLoS One 8:e66993. - PMC - PubMed
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Employing plant functional groups to advance seed dispersal ecology and conservation

Affiliations

Employing plant functional groups to advance seed dispersal ecology and conservation

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Figures

References

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources