Fruit Removal Efficiency and Success: Influence of Crop Size in a Neotropical Treelet

The reproductive success of animaldispersed plants is closely linked to the number of seeds that they are able to disperse. The fruit crop size hypothesis states that a plant with large fruit crop size will attract more dispersers than a plant with a smaller fruit crop, which may result in more seed...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Plant ecology 2007-03, Vol.189 (1), p.147-154
Main Authors: Ortiz-Pulido, Raul, Albores-Barajas, Yuri V, Diaz, SAnaid
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal reproduction
Birds
Casearia
Crops
Deciduous forests
Efficiency
Flacourtiaceae
Forest canopy
Fruit crops
Fruit trees
Fruits
Plant ecology
Plants
Reproduction
Reproductive success
Seed dispersal
Seeds
Trees
Vegetation
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Summary:The reproductive success of animaldispersed plants is closely linked to the number of seeds that they are able to disperse. The fruit crop size hypothesis states that a plant with large fruit crop size will attract more dispersers than a plant with a smaller fruit crop, which may result in more seeds being dispersed from the foremost. In this study, we experimentally examined the effect of crop size and other factors on primary seed dispersal in a neotropical shrub/tree, Casearia corymbosa (Flacourtiaceae). We used two predictive variables of reproductive success, which produce an accurate picture of seed dispersal ratio: fruit removal efficiency (proportion of a fruit crop removed by frugivores) and fruit removal success (relative contribution of each individual tree to the number of fruits removed in the population). We established two levels of fruit crop size at the C. corymbosa individuals, using plants with large (150 fruits) and small crops (50 fruits). We found that individual plants with larger crops had significantly higher values of fruit removal efficiency (92.6%) and success (5%) than plants with smaller crops (69.3% and 1.3%, respectively). Fruit removal efficiency was related to vegetation type, plant height and fruit width, but the variance explained by these variables was low (< 8%). Fruit removal success was significantly related to crop size (> 90% of the variance explained). These results suggest that fruit removal efficiency and success are strongly related to fruit crop size of C. corymbosa plants.
ISSN:1385-0237
1573-5052
DOI:10.1007/s11258-006-9175-7