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Fruit removal efficiency and success: influence of crop size in a neotropical treelet

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Abstract

The reproductive success of animal-dispersed plants is closely linked to the number of seeds that they are able to disperse. The fruit crop size hypothesis states that a plant with large fruit crop size will attract more dispersers than a plant with a smaller fruit crop, which may result in more seeds being dispersed from the foremost. In this study, we experimentally examined the effect of crop size and other factors on primary seed dispersal in a neotropical shrub/tree, Casearia corymbosa (Flacourtiaceae). We used two predictive variables of reproductive success, which produce an accurate picture of seed dispersal ratio: fruit removal efficiency (proportion of a fruit crop removed by frugivores) and fruit removal success (relative contribution of each individual tree to the number of fruits removed in the population). We established two levels of fruit crop size at the C. corymbosa individuals, using plants with large (150 fruits) and small crops (50 fruits). We found that individual plants with larger crops had significantly higher values of fruit removal efficiency (92.6%) and success (5%) than plants with smaller crops (69.3% and 1.3%, respectively). Fruit removal efficiency was related to vegetation type, plant height and fruit width, but the variance explained by these variables was low ( < 8%). Fruit removal success was significantly related to crop size ( > 90% of the variance explained). These results suggest that fruit removal efficiency and success are strongly related to fruit crop size of C. corymbosa plants.

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Acknowledgements

To Alejandro Cordoba-Aguilar whose help was essential at several stages of this research. We thank Douglas Levey, Daniel Garcia, Russell Greenberg, Marco Aurelio Pizo and Truman P. Young for critical reviews of earlier versions of this paper; the Instituto de Ecología A.C, especially Enrique Barradas, for allowing us to conduct fieldwork at CICOLMA, and Carlos Duran for plant determination; David Gernandt for reviewing the English version of the manuscript; and Sigma Xi for financially supporting of Y. V. Albores.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, Apartado 69, Pachuca, Hidalgo, 42001, México

    Raúl Ortiz-Pulido

  2. Departamento de Química y Biología, Escuela de Ciencias, Universidad de las Américas-Puebla, Ex-Hacienda Sta. Catarina Mártir, Cholula, Puebla, 72820, México

    Yuri V. Albores-Barajas & S. Anaid Díaz

  3. IBLS, Div Environm & Evolutionary Biology, Univ Glasgow, Glasgow, Lanark, G12 8QQ, Scotland

    Yuri V. Albores-Barajas

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  1. Raúl Ortiz-Pulido
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  2. Yuri V. Albores-Barajas
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  3. S. Anaid Díaz
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Correspondence to Raúl Ortiz-Pulido.

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Ortiz-Pulido, R., Albores-Barajas, Y.V. & Díaz, S.A. Fruit removal efficiency and success: influence of crop size in a neotropical treelet. Plant Ecol 189, 147–154 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-006-9175-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-006-9175-7

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