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Do birds bias measurements of seed rain?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2012

J. Leighton Reid ,
Karisa N. Katsuki  and
Karen D. Holl
J. Leighton Reid*
Affiliation:
Environmental Studies Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
Karisa N. Katsuki
Affiliation:
Environmental Studies Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
Karen D. Holl
Affiliation:
Environmental Studies Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
*
1Corresponding author. Email: j.leighton.reid@gmail.com
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Extract

Accurate measurements of seed rain are important for understanding tree reproduction (Greene & Johnson 1994), forest regeneration (Cole et al. 2010, Cubiña & Aide 2001, Howe et al. 2010, Zahawi & Augspurger 2006), forest ecology (Muller-Landau et al. 2008, Terborgh et al. 2011) and maintenance of community diversity (Harms et al. 2000). Seed traps generally consist of a bucket or net of a fixed area suspended 0.3–1 m above the ground, and seeds are typically collected once or twice per month. An implicit assumption of all seed-rain studies is that traps do not influence seed dispersal. Should birds perch on and defecate seeds into seed traps, seed abundance will be overestimated. This behaviour could produce a directional bias if birds perch on seed traps in one habitat more than others. To our knowledge, no study has considered this potential bias.

Keywords

abandoned pasturebirdsCosta Ricademonic intrusionecological restorationforest ecologyseed dispersaltropical forest
Type
Short Communication
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , July 2012 , pp. 421 - 422
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

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