Seed traits and taxonomic relationships determine the occurrence of mutualisms versus seed predation in a tropical forest rodent and seed dispersal system  

作　　者：Zhenyu WANG Lin CAO Zhibin ZHANG 

机构地区：[1]State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents in Agriculture,Institute of Zoology,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing,China [2]University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing,China

出　　处：《Integrative Zoology》2014年第3期309-319,共11页整合动物学（英文版）

基　　金：This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31071929,30930016);the Knowledge Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences(KSCX2-EW-N-05).

摘　　要：Although many studies have been carried out on plant-animal mutualistic assemblages,the roles of function­al traits and taxonomy in determining both whether interactions involve mutualisms or predation and the struc­ture of such assemblages are unclear.We used semi-natural enclosures to quantitatively assess the interaction strengths between seeds of 8 sympatric tree species and 4 rodent species in a tropical forest in Xishuangban­na,Yunnan,Southwest China.We found 2 clusters of species in the seed-rodent network represented by 2 gen­era in the Fagaceae(Castanopsis,Lithocarpus).Compared to seeds of 3 Castanopsis species,seeds with heavy weight,hard coat or caloric content(including 3 Lithocarpus species)were eaten less and more frequently hoarded by rodents.In turn,hoarded seeds showed less predation and more mutualism with rodents.Our results suggest that seed traits significantly affected the hoarding behavior of rodents,and,consequently,the occurrence of mutualisms and predation as well as assemblage structure in the plant-animal seed dispersal system.Taxo­nomically-related species with similar seed traits as functional groups belong to the same substructures in the assemblage.Our results indicate that both seed traits and taxonomic relationships may simplify thinking about seed dispersal systems by helping to elucidate whether interactions are likely to be dominated by predation or mutualism.

关 键 词：hoarding behavior MUTUALISM PREDATION seed dispersal seed trait 

分 类 号：S51[农业科学—作物学]