Lantana camara L. (Verbenaceae) originates from tropical Central and South America and has become invasive in about 50 countries. It causes problems when invading rangelands due to its toxicity to livestock and its tendency to form dense, monotonous thickets. Its invasiveness can partly be explained by the high tannin content largely protecting the species from being browsed, its tolerance to a...

Endozoochory, a mutualistic interaction between plants and frugivores, is one of the key processes responsible for maintenance tropical biodiversity. Islands, which have smaller subset frugivores when compared with mainland communities, offer an interesting setting to understand organization plant–frugivore communities vis-a-vis sites. We examined relative influence functional traits phylogenet...

Abstract Aims Viable seeds in herbivore dung constitute the seed bank, and contribution of livestock to this bank grazing pastures is often overlooked. Grazing season (warm cold), characteristics (size shape), forage preference are main factors that affect size composition ultimately grassland ecology. However, how these three interact unclear. Methods We collected yak as well common plant spec...

Aim We assessed the role of mowing machinery and endozoochory by migratory sheep as dispersal vectors in semi-natural grasslands comparing species compositions traits found to regional above-ground vegetation soil seed bank. Furthermore, we discuss how their interplay may affect conservation grasslands. Location Rhön Mountains, central Europe. Methods Plant material from mowers (n = 12 one date...

endozoochory is one of the seed dispersal modes through animal’s digestive systems transmission and the increases rate germination and plant establishment. the aim of this study, investigated the relationship between seed characteristics and the passage through the digestive tract of livestock and domestic animals (cattle, sheep and goats) in the 7 species perennial grass 8 species perennial fo...

Many fleshy-fruited plants from the Mediterranean and Macaronesian islands are dispersed through endozoochory. In mainland Mediterranean areas, reciprocal adaptations have been found between plants and animals, although evidence is scarce. On small isolated oceanic islands, such reciprocal adaptations might well be more prevalent due to intrinsic island traits. Here we evaluate the existence of...

Aim Waterbirds are important dispersal vectors of multicellular organisms; however, no study to date has focused on their potential role in dispersing aquatic microbial communities. We explicitly studied endozoochory prokaryotes and unicellular microeukaryotes by waterbirds using DNA metabarcoding. By directly comparing the dispersed set organisms source pool a natural metacommunity, we aimed a...

BACKGROUND The species Carpobrotus edulis, native to South Africa, is one of the major plant invaders of Mediterranean coastal ecosystems around the world. Invasion by C. edulis exerts a great impact on coastal habitats. The low number of native species in invaded communities points to the possible existence of mechanisms suppressing their germination. In this study we assessed whether soil fac...

Abstract The Asian clam ( Corbicula fluminea ) is one of the rapidly spreading, very successful aquatic invasive species, which has become established widely in many parts world. Its spread assumed to be by both passive and active dispersal. However, importance pedal movement dispersal hardly known. Since there was no direct evidence this phenomenon, field observations were combined with labora...