PARENT SESSION
Oral Session #21: Conservation of Biodiversity: Human landscapes, reserve design. Presiding: C. Meine.
Tuesday, August 7, 2001. 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Madison Ballroom D.
Do habitat corridors facilitate seed dispersal by birds?
Sargent, Sarah1,2, Levey, Douglas2, 1 2
ABSTRACT- We examined the effects of habitat corridors on seed dispersal by birds by experimentally manipulating connectivity of habitat patches. Working at the Savannah River Site (South Carolina), we used four replicate sets of three 128 x 128 m patches, each set consisting of a central "source" patch and two "receiver" patches. In each set, one receiver patch was connected to the source patch with a 32-m wide corridor, the other was not. Patches and corridors were recently cleared habitat in a matrix of mature pine. Over the course of two years, we monitored 20 seed traps in each patch. We studied two species that fruit only in open habitat, Rhus copallina and Phytolacca americana. Because we removed all fruit from the area, except in source patches, we assume seeds in traps originated from source patches. In the first year, two sets had appreciably (p < 0.10) more Phytolacca seeds in connected than in unconnected receiver patches; one set showed the same pattern for Rhus. The other sets yielded very few seeds in receiver patches. In the second year, very few seeds were dispersed at all. Our results suggest that habitat corridors positively influence seed dispersal in some sites in some years.
KEY WORDS: Seed dispersal, Habitat corridors, Frugivory