Evaluation of seed-dispersal services by ants at a temperate pasture: Results of direct observations in an ant suppression experiment.

ABSTRACT: Ants disperse seeds of many plant species adapted to myrmecochory. While advantages of this ant-plant mutualism for myrmecochorous plants (myrmecochores) have been previously studied in temperate region mostly in forests, our study system was a pasture. Moreover, we used a unique combination of observing the effect of ant-activity suppression on ant dispersal and comparison of the contribution of ant and unassisted dispersal to the distance from mother plant. We established plots without and with ant-activity suppression (enclosures). We offered diaspores of a myrmecochorous (Knautia arvensis), and a non-myrmecochorous (Plantago lanceolata) species in a choice test and followed ants carrying diaspores during days and nights (focus of previous studies was on diurnal dispersal)

SUBMITTER: Konecna M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10541265 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature