RT Journal Article
T1 Tree isolation enhances seed dispersal behavior by scatter-hoarding rodents
A1 Cano De Arriba, Lucía
A1 Bonal Andrés, Raúl
A1 Muñoz Muñoz, Alberto
AB Human activities cause changes in the structure of landscapes that may impact negatively on wildlife at different levels. Agriculture and livestock, for example, have frequently led to landscapes of forest fragments and isolated trees within grass/crops matrices. These changes influence the distribution and behavior of animals, and the key ecological processes that depend on them. In this study, we analyzed how tree isolation influences the patterns of acorn dispersal by scatter-hoarding rodents in Holm oak Quercus ilex fragmented woodlands of Central Spain. Our results show that an increase in the degree of tree isolation promotes the concentration of rodents under oak canopies looking for cover and food during the seeding season. This concentration increases dramatically the levels of competition among rodents for space and acorns beneath oak canopies, which resulted in an increase in acorn caching to reduce seed pilferage by conspecifics, thus favoring acorn dispersal from the mother tree. These shifts in rodent spatial distribution and behavior would favor tree recruitment through increased rates of seed dispersal, which may counterbalance to some extent the potential negative effects of forest fragmentation given the overall loss of seed-producing trees.
PB Springer
SN 0340-5443
YR 2024
FD 2024-06
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/118737
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/118737
LA eng
NO Cano, L., Bonal, R. & Muñoz, A. Tree isolation enhances seed dispersal behavior by scatter-hoarding rodents. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 78, 70 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-024-03486-z
NO Funding:This work was financed by the project PII1C09-0256-9052 (JCCM and ESF). RB was funded by a Juan de la Cierva contract and AM by post-doctoral JAE-Doc (CSIC) contracts.
NO European Commission
NO Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España)
NO Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha
NO Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 17 abr 2025