Consequences of intraspecific variation in seed dispersal for plant demography, communities, evolution and global change

Rebecca S Snell¹, Noelle G Beckman², Evan Fricke³, Bette A Loiselle^{4

5}, Carolina S Carvalho⁶, Landon R Jones⁷, Nathanael I Lichti⁸, Nicky Lustenhouwer⁹, Sebastian J Schreiber¹⁰, Christopher Strickland¹¹, Lauren L Sullivan¹², Brittany R Cavazos³, Itamar Giladi¹³, Alan Hastings^{14

15}, Kimberly M Holbrook¹⁶, Eelke Jongejans¹⁷, Oleg Kogan¹⁸, Flavia Montaño-Centellas⁴, Javiera Rudolph¹⁹, Haldre S Rogers³, Rafal Zwolak²⁰, Eugene W Schupp²¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA.
² Department of Biology and Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA.
³ Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
⁴ Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
⁵ Center for Latin American Studies, University of Florida, Gainsville, FL, USA.
⁶ Instituto Tecnológico Vale, Belém, Brazil.
⁷ Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
⁸ Department of Statistics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
⁹ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Evolution and Ecology and Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
¹¹ Department of Mathematics and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, USA.
¹² Division of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA.
¹³ Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel.
¹⁴ Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
¹⁵ Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA.
¹⁶ Africa Program, The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, VA, USA.
¹⁷ Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
¹⁸ Physics Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
²⁰ Department of Systematic Zoology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland.
²¹ Department of Wildland Resources and Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA.

PMID: 31346404
PMCID: PMC6644487
DOI: 10.1093/aobpla/plz016

Review

Consequences of intraspecific variation in seed dispersal for plant demography, communities, evolution and global change

Rebecca S Snell et al. AoB Plants. 2019.

. 2019 Mar 21;11(4):plz016.

doi: 10.1093/aobpla/plz016. eCollection 2019 Aug.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA.
² Department of Biology and Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA.
³ Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
⁴ Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
⁵ Center for Latin American Studies, University of Florida, Gainsville, FL, USA.
⁶ Instituto Tecnológico Vale, Belém, Brazil.
⁷ Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
⁸ Department of Statistics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
⁹ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Evolution and Ecology and Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
¹¹ Department of Mathematics and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, USA.
¹² Division of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA.
¹³ Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel.
¹⁴ Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
¹⁵ Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA.
¹⁶ Africa Program, The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, VA, USA.
¹⁷ Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
¹⁸ Physics Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
²⁰ Department of Systematic Zoology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland.
²¹ Department of Wildland Resources and Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA.

PMID: 31346404
PMCID: PMC6644487
DOI: 10.1093/aobpla/plz016

Abstract

As the single opportunity for plants to move, seed dispersal has an important impact on plant fitness, species distributions and patterns of biodiversity. However, models that predict dynamics such as risk of extinction, range shifts and biodiversity loss tend to rely on the mean value of parameters and rarely incorporate realistic dispersal mechanisms. By focusing on the mean population value, variation among individuals or variability caused by complex spatial and temporal dynamics is ignored. This calls for increased efforts to understand individual variation in dispersal and integrate it more explicitly into population and community models involving dispersal. However, the sources, magnitude and outcomes of intraspecific variation in dispersal are poorly characterized, limiting our understanding of the role of dispersal in mediating the dynamics of communities and their response to global change. In this manuscript, we synthesize recent research that examines the sources of individual variation in dispersal and emphasize its implications for plant fitness, populations and communities. We argue that this intraspecific variation in seed dispersal does not simply add noise to systems, but, in fact, alters dispersal processes and patterns with consequences for demography, communities, evolution and response to anthropogenic changes. We conclude with recommendations for moving this field of research forward.

Keywords: Global change; interspecific; intraspecific; long-distance dispersal; population; seed dispersal; spread; variability; within species.

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References

1. Aicher RJ, Larios L, Suding KN. 2011. Seed supply, recruitment, and assembly: quantifying relative seed and establishment limitation in a plant community context. The American Naturalist 178:464–477. - PubMed
1. Albert CH, Grassein F, Schurr FM, Vieilledent G, Violle C. 2011. When and how should intraspecific variability be considered in trait-based plant ecology? Perspectives in Plant Ecology Evolution and Systematics 13:217–225.
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1. Barrett SCH, Kohn JR. 1991. Genetic and evolutionary consequences of small population size. In: Falk DA, Holsinger KE, eds. Genetics and conservation of rare plants. New York: Oxford University Press, 3–30.
1. Bartle K, Moles AT, Bonser SP. 2013. No evidence for rapid evolution of seed dispersal ability in range edge populations of the invasive species Senecio madagascariensis. Austral Ecology 38:915–920.

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Consequences of intraspecific variation in seed dispersal for plant demography, communities, evolution and global change

Affiliations

Consequences of intraspecific variation in seed dispersal for plant demography, communities, evolution and global change

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

References

Publication types

Associated data

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Research Materials