RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Caching territoriality and site preferences by a scatter-hoarder drive the spatial pattern of seed dispersal and affect seedling emergence
A1 Martínez de Baroja Villalón, María Loreto
A1 Pérez Camacho, Lorenzo
A1 Villar Salvador, Pedro
A1 Rebollo de la Torre, Salvador
A1 Leverkus, Alexandro Bitol
A1 Pesendorfer , Mario B.
A1 Molina Morales, Mercedes
A1 Castro, Jorge
A1 Rey Benayas, José María
K1 Caching preferences
K1 Forest regeneration
K1 Gene flow
K1 Pica pica
K1 Quercus ilex
K1 Synzoochory
K1 Botany
K1 Biology
AB 1. For plants with seeds dispersed by scatter-hoarders, decision-making by animals when cachingdetermines 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 behaviourshapes seed distributions in spatially complex landscapes is not well understood. We investigatedcaching territoriality and site preferences to determine the spatial pattern of seed caching atdifferent scales and whether scatter-hoarding behaviour drives the spatial distribution of seedlingemergence.2. We used radio-tracking and automatic wildlife cameras to monitor holm oak (Quercus ilex) acorncaching by Eurasian magpies (Pica pica), who are effective scatter-hoarders in agroforestrysystems. 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. Inaddition, we analysed the relationship between the density of cached acorns and of emergedseedlings in different habitats.3. Breeding magpies cached the acorns inside their caching territories, where they preferred tilledareas over oak plantations and mostly avoided old fields. These differences in habitat preferencewere maximized at relatively short to medium dispersal distances, where most acorns werecached, and decreased or disappeared at long-distances. Within tree plantations, magpiespreferred 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 antlitter mounds, to cache the acorns. In many sites, magpies selected uncommon materials such asstones and litter to cover caches. In the subsequent spring, seedling emergence was positivelycorrelated with acorn cache density.4. Synthesis. Scatter-hoarding is a hierarchical process in which caching sites are selected usingdifferent criteria at different spatial scales driven by territoriality and site preferences.Territoriality constrained dispersal distance and the habitats available for acorn caching. Magpieterritoriality therefore indirectly drives oak seedling emergence and can determine oakrecruitment and forest regeneration.
SN 0022-0477
YR 2021
FD 2021-06
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10017/50087
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10017/50087
LA eng
NO CGL2014-459 53308-P (Ministerio Ciencia y Tecnología)PID2019-106806GB-I00 (Ministerio Ciencia e Innovación) S2013/MAE-2719 and S2018/EMT-4338 (Remedinal, CAM)CCG2014/BIO-02 & GP2019-6 (UAH)BES-2015-075276(FPI, MCT)
DS MINDS@UW
RD 20-abr-2024