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Rodent seed predation: effects on seed survival, recruitment, abundance, and dispersion of bird-dispersed tropical trees

  • Plant-animal interactions - Original research
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Abstract

Tropical tree species vary widely in their pattern of spatial dispersion. We focus on how seed predation may modify seed deposition patterns and affect the abundance and dispersion of adult trees in a tropical forest in India. Using plots across a range of seed densities, we examined whether seed predation levels by terrestrial rodents varied across six large-seeded, bird-dispersed tree species. Since inter-specific variation in density-dependent seed mortality may have downstream effects on recruitment and adult tree stages, we determined recruitment patterns close to and away from parent trees, along with adult tree abundance and dispersion patterns. Four species (Canarium resiniferum, Dysoxylum binectariferum, Horsfieldia kingii, and Prunus ceylanica) showed high predation levels (78.5–98.7%) and increased mortality with increasing seed density, while two species, Chisocheton cumingianus and Polyalthia simiarum, showed significantly lower seed predation levels and weak density-dependent mortality. The latter two species also had the highest recruitment near parent trees, with most abundant and aggregated adults. The four species that had high seed mortality had low recruitment under parent trees, were rare, and had more spaced adult tree dispersion. Biotic dispersal may be vital for species that suffer density-dependent mortality factors under parent trees. In tropical forests where large vertebrate seed dispersers but not seed predators are hunted, differences in seed vulnerability to rodent seed predation and density-dependent mortality can affect forest structure and composition.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the Wildlife Conservation Society–India Program. The Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore, helped with logistics and equipment. We thank the Arunachal Pradesh Forest Department for granting permission and facilitating the fieldwork. All experiments in this study comply with current Indian laws. Kishore Dorje, Kumar Thappa, Tagge Talang, Rajan Bahadur, Rasham Barra and Narayan Mogar made this work possible with their immense support in the field. Suhel Quader, Jason Tylianakis, Robert Chandran and T.M. Therneau helped with data analyses. Geoff Hyde and Ajith Kumar helped with the structure and content of this manuscript. Umesh Srinivasan helped at all stages of the manuscript, especially ensuring its completion. We thank Eugene Schupp, Maurie Beck and Walter P. Carson for valuable comments that helped improve our manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Post-graduate Program in Wildlife Biology and Conservation, National Centre for Biological Sciences, GKVK Campus, Bellary Road, Bangalore, 560 065, India

    Nandini Velho

  2. Wildlife Conservation Society-India Program and Centre for Wildlife Studies, No. 1669, 31st Cross, 16th Main, Banashankari 2nd Stage, Bangalore, 560 070, India

    Nandini Velho

  3. Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560 012, India

    Kavita Isvaran

  4. Nature Conservation Foundation, 3076/5, 4th Cross, Gokulam Park, Mysore, 570 002, India

    Aparajita Datta

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  1. Nandini Velho
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Correspondence to Nandini Velho.

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Communicated by Walt Carson.

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Velho, N., Isvaran, K. & Datta, A. Rodent seed predation: effects on seed survival, recruitment, abundance, and dispersion of bird-dispersed tropical trees. Oecologia 169, 995–1004 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-012-2252-9

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