RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article T1 Massive and effective acorn dispersal into agroforestry systems byan overlooked vector, the Eurasian magpie (Pica pica) A1 Rey Benayas, José María A1 Villar Salvador, Pedro A1 Castro, Jorge A1 Leverkus, Alexandro Bitol A1 Pérez Camacho, Lorenzo A1 Quiles Tundidor, Pablo A1 Gómez Sánchez, Daniel A1 Rebollo de la Torre, Salvador A1 Molina Morales, Mercedes K1 Abandoned fields K1 Corvidae K1 Oak forest regeneration K1 Quercus ilex K1 Scatter-hoarding K1 Zoochory K1 Medio Ambiente K1 Environmental science AB Oak regeneration and the expansion of forested sites in Eurasia rely on acorn dispersal by animals,especially the Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius). However, in open agroforestry systems where jaysare absent, such as old fields far from acorn sources, oak recruitment still occurs. We hypothesize that theEurasian magpie (Pica pica), an abundant corvid in this system, substitutes the jay in its seed dispersal function.By ringing 169 magpies, video recording >7500 acorn removal events with trail cameras, and radiotagging337 acorns, we quantified that (1) magpies cached 41&#-56% of the annual acorn production of Quercusilex trees in single caches on the ground; (2) breeding pairs, and especially males, were the main acorndispersers; (3) each breeding magpie cached 169&#-1372 acorns in 6 weeks; and (4) the effectiveness of dispersal(percentage of cached acorns resulting in seedlings) was 0.6&-2.4%, which (5) yielded a high densityof emerged seedlings (56&-439 seedlings/ha). We evidence that magpie could be a key species in the regenerationof oak agroforestry mosaics because they massively and effectively dispersed acorns. However, inour particular study site, effectiveness was low probably due to herbivory and summer drought stress (i.e.,a context limitation rather than an intrinsic limitation of the disperser). As the distributions of magpies andoaks overlap widely in Eurasia, effective acorn dispersal by magpies could have a significant role in largescaleoak forest recovery in strongly fragmented landscapes. YR 2019 FD 2019 LK http://hdl.handle.net/10017/41356 UL http://hdl.handle.net/10017/41356 LA eng NO Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología DS MINDS@UW RD 29-mar-2024