Directed dispersal is defined as enhanced dispersal of seeds into suitable microhabitats, resulting in higher recruitment than if seeds were dispersed randomly. While this constitutes one of the main explanations for the adaptive value of frugivore-mediated seed dispersal, the generality of this advantage has received little study, particularly when multiple dispersers are involved. We used pro...

Dispersal is an important factor in plant community assembly, but assembly studies seldom include information on actual dispersal into communities, i.e. the local propagule pool. The aim of this study was to determine which factors influence plant community assembly by focusing on two phases of the assembly process: the dispersal phase and the establishment phase. At 12 study sites in grazed ex...

Limited seed or pollen dispersal enhances spatial genetic relatedness between individuals (fine-scale spatial genetic structure, FSGS), which usually decreases as a function of physical distance. However, such isotropic pattern of FSGS may not always occur when spatially asymmetric processes, for instance, wind direction during dispersal, are considered in wind-pollinated and -dispersed plants....

Improper forest harvesting can potentially degrade forest ecosystem functions and services. Human-assisted regeneration (e.g., planting) is often used to increase the rate of forest recovery and thereby reduce regeneration failure. Seed dispersal is a fundamental ecological process that can also influence spatio-temporal patterns of forest regeneration. In this study, we investigated the relati...

Pine seed mass is isometrically related to samara shape among smaller seeded pines (< 165 mg), but not when larger seeds are included (putative bird-dispersed pines excluded). Among the largest pine seeds samara length declines with increases in seed mass. Consequently, disc-loading increases and dispersal capacity declines at an accelerating rate with increases in seed mass. The acceleration i...

Seed dispersal by animals is a key interaction, with effects on the population ecology and evolution of many plant lineages. Despite the fact that infrequent seed dispersers can potentially provide important services to plant populations, little attention has been paid so far to scarce mutualists. We assessed different aspects of quantity and quality of seed dispersal from fruit removal to seed...

A seed shadow is the spatial distribution of all seeds dispersed from an individual plant (Janzen, 1970; Nathan and Muller-Landau, 2000; Schupp et al., 2002). The sum of seed shadows across all individuals in a population plus those seeds dispersed from other populations makes up seed rain. For vertebrate-dispersed species, seed shadows are the primary outcome of plant–frugivore interactions, y...

Hunting can change abundances of vertebrate seed predators and seed dispersers, causing species-specific changes in seed dispersal and seed predation and altering seedling communities. What are the consequences of these changes for the adult plant community in the next generation and beyond? Here, I derive equations showing how reduced seed dispersal reduces plant reproduction by intensifying k...