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Contagious seed dispersal and the spread of avian-dispersed exotic plants

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Abstract

Seed dispersal by avian frugivores has driven the invasive success of numerous exotic fleshy-fruited plant species around the world. Birds’ movements are often directed toward food sources, producing seed shadows that are highly structured in space. The distribution of native fleshy-fruited plants in a landscape could thus form a spatial template for the contagious spread of exotic fleshy-fruited species in the early stages of invasion. We compared seed rain beneath fleshy-fruited and dry-fruited native-tree canopies in forested habitats and open fields in southeastern Michigan. We predicted that exotic seed rain would be highest beneath the canopies of fleshy-fruited plants, and that localities with higher densities of fruit-bearing fleshy-fruited plants would receive more exotic seed rain. Our results suggest that the seed shadows of exotic fleshy-fruited species are strongly influenced by the spatial distributions of native fleshy-fruited trees, and by the local density of fleshy-fruited plants. Over 92 % of exotic seeds were dispersed beneath fleshy-fruited trees, whereas less than 8 % of exotic seeds were dispersed beneath dry-fruited trees. Exotic seed rain was positively related to the local density of fleshy-fruited plants in forest, but not in open fields. Our study shows how shared dispersal syndromes and frugivore behavior influence the seed shadows of avian-dispersed exotic plants, enabling spatially explicit predictions of invasive spread in their novel ranges.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Mary R. Swales grant to NOB, awarded by the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, and a Graduate Student Research Grant to NOB, awarded by the Rackham School of Graduate Studies at the University of Michigan. We thank J. Vandermeer, M. Hunter, and R. Burnham for helpful discussions. We also thank M. Cruz, B. Miller, D. Gross, Z. Stamplis, and A. Iverson for helping with fieldwork. Three anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments on the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    N. Omar Bonilla & Elizabeth G. Pringle

  2. Michigan Society of Fellows, School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Elizabeth G. Pringle

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  1. N. Omar Bonilla
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Correspondence to N. Omar Bonilla.

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Bonilla, N.O., Pringle, E.G. Contagious seed dispersal and the spread of avian-dispersed exotic plants. Biol Invasions 17, 3409–3418 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-015-0966-4

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