Plants At Risk From Lack Of Seed Dispersal With Large Animal Extinction

First Posted: Jul 20, 2015 03:00 PM EDT
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New findings published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography examine a worldwide study on animals and the seeds they eat, including a long-held assumption that still holds true: larger animals mainly stick to larger seeds. But just what does this mean for the environment? 

Researchers at UNSW Australia noted how a wider variety of plants could be at risk if certain larger animals go extinct and do not properly tend to seed dispersal.

"It is the first broad-scale study of the relationship between animal body mass and ingested seed size ever undertaken," says Ms Chen, a PhD candidate in the UNSW School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, in a news release. "We covered all vertebrate groups -- fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. And we included animals from many different areas -- from the Arctic tundra to the tropical rainforests."

For the study, researchers compiled and analyzed data on over 13,000 animal-seed interactions that were based on previously published reports, with the smallest seeds including the mountain snowberry consumed by the skinks on the Chatham Islands near New Zealand and the largest-near 9-centimeter long seeds of the African tropical forest tree, Balanites wilsonia--eaten by the largest animals in the study -- 4-tonne African elephants.

"It has long been predicted that as the body size of animals increases so does the size of the seeds they ingest," added Chen. "Big animals do eat some big seeds from fleshy fruits. But the prediction is wrong because it overlooks the fact that big animals like buffalos, cows, deer and zebras also accidentally vacuum up hundreds of small seeds as they graze on short grassy vegetation."

"If large animals become extinct in an ecosystem, it will not only be the largest-seed species that lose their potential dispersers; some of the smallest-seed species will also be at risk," concluded Chen.

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