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Seed dispersal by the Florida box turtle (Terrapene carolina bauri) in pine rockland forests of the lower Florida Keys, United States

  • Plant Animal Interactions
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Abstract

Seed dispersal by animals is one of the most important plant-animal mutualisms, but saurochory, the dispersal of seeds by reptiles, has received little attention. We investigated the role of the Florida box turtle (Terrapene carolina bauri) as a seed dispersal agent in pine rockland forests of the lower Florida Keys and examined the effect of turtle digestion on seed germination. We obtained seeds of 11 species with fleshy fruits and 2 species with non-fleshy fruits (a grass and legume) from the feces of 145 box turtles collected on Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge from 1999 to 2000. We planted the seeds of nine species and germination percentage (percentage of seeds that germinated during the experiment) varied from 10% to 80%. Comparative germination experiments were conducted with Thrinax morrissii, Serenoa repens, and Byrsonima lucida. We compared the germination percentage and germination rate (number of days from planting to seedling emergence) of seeds from three treatments (seeds recovered from feces, control seeds with pulp, and control seeds without pulp) and continued these experiments for up to 2 years. Passage through the box turtle digestive tract greatly enhanced the germination percentage and germination rate of S. repens, but decreased the germination percentage of B. lucida and T. morrissii, and decreased germination rate for T. morrissii. Subsequent destructive seed viability tests revealed that many ungerminated T. morrissii seeds remained viable, suggesting long-term seed dormancy may occur, even after passage through the turtle digestive system. In addition, the proportion of ungerminated seeds which remained viable was greater for seeds recovered from turtle feces than from control seeds with pulp. Furthermore, removal of fleshy pulp either manually or by the turtle digestive system may allow T. morrissii to escape insect predation.

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Acknowledgements

The Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge provided logistical support. Joanne Singfield, Jenny McCune, Jana Mott, Christie Whelan, and Sarah Naylor cared for plants, and Qingwen Liu and Xiulan Zhu helped to collect and process fruits. The turtle finding abilities of Trouble were critical to the success of this project. Comments by Augustus McRae, Suzanne Koptur, Eric Menges, Jed Redwine, Woodrow Call, John Geiger, Javier Francisco-Ortega, Doug Levey, and an anonymous reviewer greatly improved an earlier draft of this manuscript. Paulette Johnson and Pedro Quintana-Ascencio are thanked for statistical advice. Suzanne Koptur supplied unpublished fruiting phenology data. Support for H.L. was provided by the Florida Native Plant Society, Tropical Biology Research Awards and Dissertation Year Fellowship from Florida International University, and a grant from the Department of the Interior to M. Ross, J.R. Snyder and S. Koptur (Cooperative Agreement CA-1445-CA09–95–0112). Support for S.G.P. was provided by the Wildlife Conservation Society. This is contribution 62 of the Tropical Biology Program of Florida International University.

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Author notes

  1. Steven G. Platt

    Present address: Department of Math and Science, Oglala Lakota College, P.O. Box 490, Kyle, SD 57752-0490, USA

  2. Christopher K. Borg

    Present address: Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center, Route 2 Box 2324, Newton, GA 39870, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA

    Hong Liu & Christopher K. Borg

  2. Wildlife Conservation Society, 2300 Southern Blvd., Bronx, New York, NY 10460-1099, USA

    Steven G. Platt

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  1. Hong Liu
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Correspondence to Hong Liu.

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Liu, H., Platt, S.G. & Borg, C.K. Seed dispersal by the Florida box turtle (Terrapene carolina bauri) in pine rockland forests of the lower Florida Keys, United States. Oecologia 138, 539–546 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-003-1445-7

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