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Upward movement of buried seeds: another ecological role of dung beetles promoting seedling establishment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Carolina Santos-Heredia  and
Ellen Andresen
Carolina Santos-Heredia*
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro No. 8701, Ex-Hacienda de San José de la Huerta, CP 58090, Morelia, Michoacán, México Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Av. Ciudad Universitaria 3000, C.P. 04360, Coyoacán, Distrito Federal, México
Ellen Andresen
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro No. 8701, Ex-Hacienda de San José de la Huerta, CP 58090, Morelia, Michoacán, México
*
1Corresponding author. Email: macasahe@gmail.com
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Abstract:

Dung beetles are known to perform important ecological functions, such as secondary seed dispersal of vertebrate-defecated seeds. We found that dung beetles also move buried seeds upwards, with positive consequences for seedling establishment. In the Lacandon rain forest of southern Mexico we conducted field experiments to address three questions: (1) What proportions of different-sized seeds buried by dung beetles are exhumed by them? (2) Does upward relocation of seeds caused by dung beetle activity promote seedling establishment? (3) Does recurrent beetle activity increase seedling establishment? Using 4-mm, 8-mm and 12-mm beads as seed mimics, embedded in howler-monkey dung, we found that 2–6% of buried beads were later exhumed by beetles, with smaller beads exhumed more often. In small plots (N = 100) where beetles were allowed to bury dung and seed rain was excluded, seedling establishment was over three times higher compared with plots without beetle activity. In plots (N = 8) where we placed dung on four occasions in 1 mo, seedling establishment was more than twice as high compared with plots with single-time dung placement. We believe that our findings open up interesting research opportunities to help further elucidate this newly discovered ecological function of dung beetles.

Keywords

Lacandon rain forestScarabaeinaeseed dynamicsseed fatesoil seed bank
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 30 , Issue 5 , September 2014 , pp. 409 - 417
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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