Frugivory and seed dispersal: ecological and evolutionary aspects

Frugivory and seed dispersal: ecological and evolutionary aspects PDF Author: T.H. Fleming
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401117497
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
Any scientific discipline needs a theoretical framework to guide its development and to sharpen the questions its researchers pursue. In biology, evolution is the grand theoretical framework, and an his torical perspective is necessary to understand present-day biological conditions. In its formative years, the modern study of the fruit-frugivore mutualism was guided by the 'specialist-generalist' paradigm developed by D. Snow, D. McKey, and H. Howe. Howe reviews the current status of this evolution ary paradigm and points out that it has been dismissed by many workers before being adequately tested. This is because ecologists working with the tropical plants and frugivorous birds for which the paradigm was originally developed rarely measure the seed dispersal effectiveness of different disperser species. He indicates that this paradigm still has heuristic value and suggests that several additional ecological paradigms, including the concept ofkeystone species ofplants and frugivores and the role that frugivores play in density-dependent mortality in tropical trees, are worth studying. The concept of seed dispersal quality has been central to discussions of fruit-frugivore coevolution. Schupp thoroughly reviews data bearing on this concept, constructs a hierarchical framework for viewing disperser effectiveness, and points out that disperser effectiveness depends on both the quantity and quality of seed dispersal. Effectiveness, in turn, affects both evolutionary and ecological relationships between dispersers and their food plants.

Frugivory and seed dispersal: ecological and evolutionary aspects

Frugivory and seed dispersal: ecological and evolutionary aspects PDF Author: T.H. Fleming
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401117497
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 392

Get Book

Book Description
Any scientific discipline needs a theoretical framework to guide its development and to sharpen the questions its researchers pursue. In biology, evolution is the grand theoretical framework, and an his torical perspective is necessary to understand present-day biological conditions. In its formative years, the modern study of the fruit-frugivore mutualism was guided by the 'specialist-generalist' paradigm developed by D. Snow, D. McKey, and H. Howe. Howe reviews the current status of this evolution ary paradigm and points out that it has been dismissed by many workers before being adequately tested. This is because ecologists working with the tropical plants and frugivorous birds for which the paradigm was originally developed rarely measure the seed dispersal effectiveness of different disperser species. He indicates that this paradigm still has heuristic value and suggests that several additional ecological paradigms, including the concept ofkeystone species ofplants and frugivores and the role that frugivores play in density-dependent mortality in tropical trees, are worth studying. The concept of seed dispersal quality has been central to discussions of fruit-frugivore coevolution. Schupp thoroughly reviews data bearing on this concept, constructs a hierarchical framework for viewing disperser effectiveness, and points out that disperser effectiveness depends on both the quantity and quality of seed dispersal. Effectiveness, in turn, affects both evolutionary and ecological relationships between dispersers and their food plants.

Frugivory and Seed Dispersal

Frugivory and Seed Dispersal PDF Author: T. H. Fleming
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
Historical and theoretical aspects of frugivory and seed dispersal. Plant strategies. Frugivore strategies. Consequences of seed dispersal.

Seed Dispersal and Frugivory

Seed Dispersal and Frugivory PDF Author: Douglas John Levey
Publisher: Woodhead Publishing
ISBN: 9780851995250
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 536

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Book Description
This book provides information on the historical and theoretical perspectives of biodiversity and ecology in tropical forests, plant and animal behaviour towards seed dispersal and plant-animal interactions within forest communities, consequences of seed dispersal, and conservation, biodiversity and management.

Seed Dispersal

Seed Dispersal PDF Author: Andrew J. Dennis
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 1845931661
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 704

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Book Description
Fresh concepts in the study of seed dispersal are spurring a host of exciting new questions, new answers to old questions, new methods and approaches, and a reinvigoration of the field.Seed Dispersal: Theory and its Application in a Changing World presents both recent advances and reviews of current knowledge demonstrating the vigour and vibrancy of the field. It provides new perspectives and directions at a time when efforts to meet growing environmental challenges threatening natural systems are of utmost importance.

Reproductive Ecology of Tropical Forest Plants

Reproductive Ecology of Tropical Forest Plants PDF Author: K.S. Bawa
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 9781850702689
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
Reproductive Ecology of Tropical Forest Plants reviews recent developments in the reproductive ecology of tropical forest plants and explores the implications of current findings on forest structure, function, management, and conservation. It examines how insights gained from reproductive ecology can be helpful in the management of tropical forest resources and discusses directions of future research.

Frugivores and seed dispersal

Frugivores and seed dispersal PDF Author: Alejandro Estrada
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400948123
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
A wide variety of plants, ranging in size from forest floor herbs to giant canopy trees, rely on animals to disperse their seeds. Typical values of the proportion of tropical vascular plants that produce fleshy fruits and have animal-dispersed seeds range from 50-90%, depending on habitat. In this section, the authors discuss this mutualism from the plant's perspective. Herrera begins by challenging the notion that plant traits traditionally interpreted as being the product of fruit-frugivore coevolution really are the outcome of a response-counter-response kind of evolutionary process. He uses examples of congeneric plants living in very different biotic and abiotic environments and whose fossilizable characteristics have not changed over long periods of time to argue that there exists little or no basis for assuming that gradualistic change and environmental tracking characterizes the interactions between plants and their vertebrate seed dispersers. A common theme that runs through the papers by Herrera, Denslow et at. , and Stiles and White is the importance of the 'fruiting environment' (i. e. the spatial relationships of conspecific and non-conspecific fruiting plants) on rates of fruit removal and patterns of seed rain. Herrera and Denslow et at. point out that this environment is largely outside the control of individual plant species and, as a result, closely coevolved interactions between vertebrates and plants are unlikely to evolve.

Demography and Evolution in Plant Populations

Demography and Evolution in Plant Populations PDF Author: Otto Thomas Solbrig
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520039315
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
Populationen und ihre Dynamik, Evolution und Systematik.

Seeds

Seeds PDF Author: Michael Fenner
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 9780851994321
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
This is the second edition of a multi-author book first published in 1992. It deals with all aspects of plant regeneration by seeds, including reproductive allocation, seed dispersal and predation, longevity, dormancy and germination. All chapters have been updated, and four new chapters added on seed size, seedling establishment, the role of gaps, and regeneration from seed after fire.

Food Acquisition and Processing in Primates

Food Acquisition and Processing in Primates PDF Author: David J. Chivers
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 147575244X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 575

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Book Description
This book results from a two-day symposium and three-day workshop held in Cambridge between March 22nd and March 26th 1982 and sponsored by the Primate Society of Great Britain and the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. More than 100 primatologists attended the symposium and some 35 were invited to participate in the workshop. Speakers from Prance, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa and the U. S. A. , as weIl as the U. K. , were invited to contribute. In recent years feeling had strengthened that primatologists in Europe did not gather together sufficiently often. Distinctive tradit ions in primatology have developed in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy and the U. K. in particular, and it was feIt that attempts to blend them could only benefit primatology. Furthermore, studies of primate ecology, behaviour, anatomy, physiology and evolution have reached the points where further advances depend on inter-disciplinary collaboration. It was resolved to arrange a regular series of round table discussions on primate biology in Europe at the biennial meeting of the German Society for Anthropology and Human Genetics in Heidel berg in September 1979, where Holger Preuschoft organised sessions on primate ecology and anatomy. In June 1980 Michel Sakka convened a most effective working group in Paris to discuss cranial morphology and evolution. In 1982 it was the turn of the U. K.

Seed Dispersal and Frugivory

Seed Dispersal and Frugivory PDF Author: Douglas John Levey
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 085199525X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 530

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Book Description
This book provides information on the historical and theoretical perspectives of biodiversity and ecology in tropical forests, plant and animal behaviour towards seed dispersal and plant-animal interactions within forest communities, consequences of seed dispersal, and conservation, biodiversity and management.