Dispersal Mutualism Incorporated into Large-Scale, Infrequent Disturbances

Because of their influence on succession and other community interactions, large-scale, infrequent natural disturbances also should play a major role in mutualistic interactions. Using field data and experiments, I test whether mutualisms have been incorporated into large-scale wildfire by whether t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2015-07, Vol.10 (7), p.e0132625-e0132625
Main Author: Parker, V Thomas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Arctostaphylos
Banks (Finance)
Caching
Dispersal
Disturbances
Ecology
Ecosystems
Environmental changes
Ericaceae
Evolution
Field tests
Fires
Forest & brush fires
Fruit - physiology
Germination
Host plants
Life history
Mutualism
Plant Stems - anatomy & histology
Plant Stems - physiology
Rodentia
Rodents
Seed banks
Seed dispersal
Seed Dispersal - physiology
Seedlings
Seedlings - physiology
Seeds
Soil dispersion
Studies
Symbiosis
Transformation
Wildfires
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Summary:Because of their influence on succession and other community interactions, large-scale, infrequent natural disturbances also should play a major role in mutualistic interactions. Using field data and experiments, I test whether mutualisms have been incorporated into large-scale wildfire by whether the outcomes of a mutualism depend on disturbance. In this study a seed dispersal mutualism is shown to depend on infrequent, large-scale disturbances. A dominant shrubland plant (Arctostaphylos species) produces seeds that make up a persistent soil seed bank and requires fire to germinate. In post-fire stands, I show that seedlings emerging from rodent caches dominate sites experiencing higher fire intensity. Field experiments show that rodents (Perimyscus californicus, P. boylii) do cache Arctostaphylos fruit and bury most seed caches to a sufficient depth to survive a killing heat pulse that a fire might drive into the soil. While the rodent dispersal and caching behavior itself has not changed compared to other habitats, the environmental transformation caused by wildfire converts the caching burial of seed from a dispersal process to a plant fire adaptive trait, and provides the context for stimulating subsequent life history evolution in the plant host.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0132625