Not only gone with the wind

Article Abstract:

Plant seeds are dispersed by animals as well as by the wind, demonstrating that animals have an important ecological role in helping plants maintain the mobile population necessary for survival when the environment alters. S.B. Vander Wall, in the journal 'Ecology,' reports one among several studies confirming the role of animals in spreading seeds. Vander Wall used radioisotopes in pine seeds to show that yellow pine chipmunks contribute to dispersing the seeds of the Jeffrey pine in Nevada.

Population biology

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How to get carried away

Article Abstract:

Some ant-dispersed plant seeds' similarity in form to stick-insect eggs may be an example of convergent evolution. L. Hughes and M. Westoby found that the seeds and eggs both have large, oval structures attached to smaller, lid-like structures. This resemblance causes ants to bury both seeds and eggs in ant nests. Although this dispersal and burial obviously benefits the seeds, how the eggs benefit is less clear. Burial may protect the eggs from parasites or fire.

Insects, Convergence (Biology), Convergent evolution, Eggs (Biology)

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Feeding patterns on forest floors

Article Abstract:

Ecological research indicates that the feeding patterns of the howler monkeys of French Guiana and the tapirs of Brazil influence plant population patterns in tropical forests. These and other vertebrate herbivores including gorillas, baboons and lemurs effect the dispersal of seeds around the forest. The animals ingest the seeds in one part of the forest and excrete them in another area, thus improving the survival rate of seedling plants.

Food and nutrition, Mammals, Rain forest ecology

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