Wang Guohai, Pan Yang, Qin Guole, Tan Weining, Lu Changhu
College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
PeerJ. 2020 Nov 16;8:e10378. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10378. eCollection 2020.
Seed removal behaviors of rodents are largely influenced by microhabitat. Although the karst ecosystem is composed of a broad variety of microhabitats, we have no information on how they affect such behaviors. We investigated rodents' seed removal behaviors in four karst microhabitats (stone cavern, stone groove, stone surface, and soil surface) using three types of seeds: fresh, black (intact seeds with black aril that dehydrates and darkens), and exposed (clean seeds without the aril). We show that , and were the predominant seed predators. Even though all seed types experienced a high removal rate in all four microhabitats, but rodents preferentially removed seeds from the three stone microhabitats (stone caves: 69.71 ± 2.74%; stone surface: 60.53 ± 2.90%; stone groove: 56.94 ± 2.91%) compared to the soil surface (53.90 ± 2.92%). Seeds that had been altered by being exposed to the environment were more attractive to rodents than fresh seeds (76.25 ± 2.20% versus 36.18 ± 2.29%). The seed removal behavior of rodents was significantly affected by the microhabitat and seed type. Finally, seeds that had fallen on the soil surface microhabitat incurred a lower predation risk than seeds fallen on other microhabitats, which increased their probability to germinate. Our results indicate that the lower predation rate of seeds from the endangered dropped on the soil surface increases trees' likelihood of survival.
啮齿动物的种子移除行为在很大程度上受微生境影响。尽管喀斯特生态系统由多种多样的微生境组成，但我们并不清楚它们如何影响此类行为。我们使用三种类型的种子（新鲜种子、黑色种子（带有脱水变黑的黑色假种皮的完整种子）和裸露种子（无假种皮的干净种子）），研究了啮齿动物在四种喀斯特微生境（石洞、石槽、石面和土面）中的种子移除行为。我们发现，[此处原文缺失具体物种信息]是主要的种子捕食者。尽管所有种子类型在所有四种微生境中都有很高的移除率，但与土面（53.90 ± 2.92%）相比，啮齿动物更倾向于从三种石质微生境（石洞：69.71 ± 2.74%；石面：60.53 ± 2.90%；石槽：56.94 ± 2.91%）移除种子。暴露于环境中而发生变化的种子比新鲜种子对啮齿动物更具吸引力（76.25 ± 2.20% 对 36.18 ± 2.29%）。啮齿动物的种子移除行为受微生境和种子类型的显著影响。最后，落在土面微生境的种子遭受的捕食风险低于落在其他微生境的种子，这增加了它们发芽的概率。我们的结果表明，濒危[此处原文缺失具体物种信息]的种子落在土面时较低的捕食率增加了树木存活的可能性。
