%0 Journal Article 
%A Martínez de Baroja Villalón, María Loreto
%A Pérez Camacho, Lorenzo
%A Villar Salvador, Pedro
%A Rebollo de la Torre, Salvador
%A Leverkus, Alexandro Bitol
%A Pesendorfer , Mario B.
%A Molina Morales, Mercedes
%A Castro, Jorge
%A Rey Benayas, José María
%T Caching territoriality and site preferences by a scatter-hoarder drive the spatial pattern of seed dispersal and affect seedling emergence
%D 2021
%@ 0022-0477
%U http://hdl.handle.net/10017/50087
%X 1. For plants with seeds dispersed by scatter-hoarders, decision-making by animals when caching
determines the spatial pattern of seed dispersal and lays the initial template for recruitment,
driving the regeneration of many species. However, the mechanism by which animal behaviour
shapes seed distributions in spatially complex landscapes is not well understood. We investigated
caching territoriality and site preferences to determine the spatial pattern of seed caching at
different scales and whether scatter-hoarding behaviour drives the spatial distribution of seedling
emergence.
2. We used radio-tracking and automatic wildlife cameras to monitor holm oak (Quercus ilex) acorn
caching by Eurasian magpies (Pica pica), who are effective scatter-hoarders in agroforestry
systems. We assessed the effect of caching territories, distance to seed source, habitat, subhabitat, microsites, and caching material in the spatial pattern of acorn dispersal by magpies. In
addition, we analysed the relationship between the density of cached acorns and of emerged
seedlings in different habitats.
3. Breeding magpies cached the acorns inside their caching territories, where they preferred tilled
areas over oak plantations and mostly avoided old fields. These differences in habitat preference
were maximized at relatively short to medium dispersal distances, where most acorns were
cached, and decreased or disappeared at long-distances. Within tree plantations, magpies
preferred high plant-productivity sites over low productivity ones. At the finest spatial scale,
magpies preferred structures built by animals, such as rabbit grit mounds and latrines and ant
litter mounds, to cache the acorns. In many sites, magpies selected uncommon materials such as
stones and litter to cover caches. In the subsequent spring, seedling emergence was positively
correlated with acorn cache density.
4. Synthesis. Scatter-hoarding is a hierarchical process in which caching sites are selected using
different criteria at different spatial scales driven by territoriality and site preferences.
Territoriality constrained dispersal distance and the habitats available for acorn caching. Magpie
territoriality therefore indirectly drives oak seedling emergence and can determine oak
recruitment and forest regeneration.
%K Caching preferences
%K Forest regeneration
%K Gene flow
%K Pica pica
%K Quercus ilex
%K Synzoochory
%K Botany
%K Biology
%~ Biblioteca Universidad de Alcala