Despite the probable extinction of closely related sister species and genera, and the evolution of morphological structures as adaptations to changing environmental conditions, they still share basic reproductive traits...
Tag - seed dispersal
botanyone
Is shattering in Aegilops longissima controlled by overlapping gene expression?
Study authors argue that suppression of one or both genes in different regions of the rachis prevented disarticulation.
Erin Zimmerman
Topography Leaves Its Mark in Goldenrod Genetics
The variation of montane environments means that the genetics of alpine goldenrods populations differ more than their lowland cousins.
Fi Gennu
Advancing an interdisciplinary framework to study seed dispersal ecology
Although dispersal is generally viewed as a crucial determinant for the fitness of any organism, our understanding of its role in the persistence and spread of plant populations remains incomplete. Dispersal influences...
William Salter
The total dispersal kernel: a review and future directions
The distribution and abundance of plants across the world depends in part on their ability to move, which is commonly characterized by a dispersal kernel (a probability density function describing where seeds land...
Consequences of intraspecific variation in seed dispersal for plant demography, communities, evolution and global change
As the single opportunity for plants to move, seed dispersal has an important impact on plant fitness, species distributions and patterns of biodiversity. However, models that predict extinction risk of species, range...
Investment in reward by ant-dispersed plants
Myrmecochory is a mutualistic interaction in which ants disperse the seeds of plants. The defining feature of such plants is the elaiosome, a lipid rich seed appendage that serves as a reward to the ants. It is...
What drives germination and seedling survival in an Afrotropical forest?
Hunting in otherwise intact tropical forests removes organisms from some trophic levels, which can change population and community dynamics at other levels. The preferred game species can be dispersers of seeds (e.g...
Flowers (it’s what angiosperms are all about!)
Although one shouldn’t, it is easy to accept that flowers (the defining feature of the angiosperms, the flowering plants) are ‘just there’ and get on with life in their quiet, seemingly unremarkable way. If one...
Nigel Chaffey
Sore diners, cycads and birds…
… and now to … dinosaurs (!). Dinosaurs? Well, we did say at the outset of this mini series of articles that ‘seeds and animals’ was a very old association. Unlike the other animal associations mentioned already in this...
Dispersal and establishment of vascular epiphytes in modified landscapes
The ongoing destruction of old-growth forests puts tropical forest species, with epiphytes as a key element, under great pressure. To maintain viable epiphyte communities in fragmented landscapes, remaining habitable...
AoBPLANTS
Does this seedling taste fishy to you…? ***
NIgel Chaffey returns with another tale of asyníthchory, this time involving fish.
It’s Bears, not Birds that scatter seeds in Alaska
The discovery comes after scientists spent time watching what bears do in the woods.
Dale Maylea
Cocoa, chimpanzees, and the restorative value of gorilla dung…
Having reached mammals in our meanderings, and the human involvement in global plant dispersal (admirably explored in Michael Pollan’s book The Botany of Desire) notwithstanding, we couldn’t ignore our nearest and...
