Zwolak, R. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2019

Mast seeding promotes evolution of scatter-hoarding

Many plant species worldwide are dispersed by scatterhoarding granivores: animals that hide seeds in numerous, small caches for future consumption. Yet, the evolution of scatterhoarding is difficult to explain because undefended caches are at high risk of pilferage. Previous models have attempted to solve this problem by giving cache owners large advantages in cache recovery, by kin selection, or by introducing reciprocal pilferage of "shared" seed resources. However, the role of environmental variability has been so far overlooked in this context. One important form of such variability is masting, which is displayed by many plant species dispersed by scatterhoarders. We use a mathematical model to investigate the influence of masting on the evolution of scatter-hoarding. The model accounts for periodically varying annual seed fall, caching and pilfering behavior, and the demography of scatterhoarders. The parameter values are based mostly on research on European beech (Fagus sylvatica) and yellow-necked mice (Apodemus flavicollis). Starvation of scatterhoarders between mast years decreases the population density that enters masting events, which leads to reduced seed pilferage. Satiation of scatterhoarders during mast events lowers the reproductive cost of caching (i.e. the cost of caching for the future rather than using seeds for current reproduction). These reductions promote the evolution of scatter-hoarding behavior especially when interannual variation in seed fall and the period between masting events are large.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2017

Predators or mutualists? Lack of dispersal distance benefits and small caching profits makes scatterhoarding rodents antagonists of oaks

Numerous interactions between plants and animals vary in their outcome between antagonism and mutualism, but it has proven to be difficult to quantify their final outcome. Interactions between plants and scatterhoarding animals provide a prime example of this phenomenon. Scatterhoarders consume large quantities of seeds (potentially reducing plant establishment), yet also disperse seeds and bury them in shallow caches (potentially improving recruitment). However, it has been rarely determined which role prevails for particular plant species. We demonstrate how plant-scatterhoarder interactions can be placed at the antagonism-mutualism continuum, with interactions between rodents and two oaks species (sessile oak Quercus petraea, and red oak Q. rubra) as an empirical example. Our approach consists of quantifying the net outcome of the interaction through assembling different vital rates (e.g. probability of seedling recruitment with and without rodents; near and far from conspecific trees; with and without seed pilferage) piecewise with a simple mathematical model. Our results indicate that during the period of the study, interactions between scatterhoarding rodents and both focal oaks were antagonistic. Even though acorn burial increased the likelihood of seedling establishment, this effect was not strong enough to compensate for the costs of seed predation. Furthermore, we found no evidence that the short-distance transportation that is usually provided by small mammals benefited early oak recruitment. Our study demonstrates how readily accessible field data can be used to gauge the outcomes in conditional mutualisms.

ecology↗