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Seed Size, Not Dispersal Syndrome, Determines Potential for Spread of Ricefield Weeds by Gulls

Recent field data suggest that migratory gulls disperse many rice field weeds by gut passage (endozoochory), most of which are dry fruited and widely assumed to have no long-distance dispersal mechanisms, except via human activity. We investigated this mechanism with a feeding experiment, in which s...

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Autores principales: Peralta-Sánchez, Juan Manuel, Ansotegui, Albán, Hortas, Francisco, Redón, Stella, Martín-Vélez, Víctor, Green, Andy J., Navarro-Ramos, María J., Lovas-Kiss, Adam, Sánchez, Marta I.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10096937/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37050096
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants12071470
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author Peralta-Sánchez, Juan Manuel
Ansotegui, Albán
Hortas, Francisco
Redón, Stella
Martín-Vélez, Víctor
Green, Andy J.
Navarro-Ramos, María J.
Lovas-Kiss, Adam
Sánchez, Marta I.
author_facet Peralta-Sánchez, Juan Manuel
Ansotegui, Albán
Hortas, Francisco
Redón, Stella
Martín-Vélez, Víctor
Green, Andy J.
Navarro-Ramos, María J.
Lovas-Kiss, Adam
Sánchez, Marta I.
author_sort Peralta-Sánchez, Juan Manuel
collection PubMed
description Recent field data suggest that migratory gulls disperse many rice field weeds by gut passage (endozoochory), most of which are dry fruited and widely assumed to have no long-distance dispersal mechanisms, except via human activity. We investigated this mechanism with a feeding experiment, in which seeds of five common rice field weeds (in order of increasing seed size: Juncus bufonius, Cyperus difformis, Polypogon monspeliensis, Amaranthus retroflexus, and the fleshy-fruited Solanum nigrum) were fed to seven individuals of lesser black-backed gulls Larus fuscus held in captivity. We quantified seed survival after collecting faeces at intervals for 33 h after ingestion, then extracting intact seeds and running germination tests, which were also conducted for control seeds. All five species showed high seed survival after gut passage, of >70%. Gut retention times averaged 2–4 h, but maxima exceeded 23 h for all species. Germinability after gut passage was 16–54%, and gut passage accelerated germination in J. bufonius and S. nigrum, but slowed it down in the other species. All species had lower germinability after gut passage compared to control seeds (likely due to stratification prior to the experiment), but the loss of germinability was higher in smaller seeds. There was no evidence that the different dispersal syndromes assigned to the five species (endozoochory, epizoochory or barochory) had any influence on our results. In contrast, mean gut retention time was strongly and positively related to seed size, likely because small seeds pass more quickly from the gizzard into the intestines. Non-classical endozoochory of dry-fruited seeds by waterbirds is a major but overlooked mechanism for potential long-distance dispersal, and more research into this process is likely essential for effective weed management.
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spelling pubmed-100969372023-04-13 Seed Size, Not Dispersal Syndrome, Determines Potential for Spread of Ricefield Weeds by Gulls Peralta-Sánchez, Juan Manuel Ansotegui, Albán Hortas, Francisco Redón, Stella Martín-Vélez, Víctor Green, Andy J. Navarro-Ramos, María J. Lovas-Kiss, Adam Sánchez, Marta I. Plants (Basel) Article Recent field data suggest that migratory gulls disperse many rice field weeds by gut passage (endozoochory), most of which are dry fruited and widely assumed to have no long-distance dispersal mechanisms, except via human activity. We investigated this mechanism with a feeding experiment, in which seeds of five common rice field weeds (in order of increasing seed size: Juncus bufonius, Cyperus difformis, Polypogon monspeliensis, Amaranthus retroflexus, and the fleshy-fruited Solanum nigrum) were fed to seven individuals of lesser black-backed gulls Larus fuscus held in captivity. We quantified seed survival after collecting faeces at intervals for 33 h after ingestion, then extracting intact seeds and running germination tests, which were also conducted for control seeds. All five species showed high seed survival after gut passage, of >70%. Gut retention times averaged 2–4 h, but maxima exceeded 23 h for all species. Germinability after gut passage was 16–54%, and gut passage accelerated germination in J. bufonius and S. nigrum, but slowed it down in the other species. All species had lower germinability after gut passage compared to control seeds (likely due to stratification prior to the experiment), but the loss of germinability was higher in smaller seeds. There was no evidence that the different dispersal syndromes assigned to the five species (endozoochory, epizoochory or barochory) had any influence on our results. In contrast, mean gut retention time was strongly and positively related to seed size, likely because small seeds pass more quickly from the gizzard into the intestines. Non-classical endozoochory of dry-fruited seeds by waterbirds is a major but overlooked mechanism for potential long-distance dispersal, and more research into this process is likely essential for effective weed management. MDPI 2023-03-27 /pmc/articles/PMC10096937/ /pubmed/37050096 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants12071470 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Peralta-Sánchez, Juan Manuel
Ansotegui, Albán
Hortas, Francisco
Redón, Stella
Martín-Vélez, Víctor
Green, Andy J.
Navarro-Ramos, María J.
Lovas-Kiss, Adam
Sánchez, Marta I.
Seed Size, Not Dispersal Syndrome, Determines Potential for Spread of Ricefield Weeds by Gulls
title Seed Size, Not Dispersal Syndrome, Determines Potential for Spread of Ricefield Weeds by Gulls
title_full Seed Size, Not Dispersal Syndrome, Determines Potential for Spread of Ricefield Weeds by Gulls
title_fullStr Seed Size, Not Dispersal Syndrome, Determines Potential for Spread of Ricefield Weeds by Gulls
title_full_unstemmed Seed Size, Not Dispersal Syndrome, Determines Potential for Spread of Ricefield Weeds by Gulls
title_short Seed Size, Not Dispersal Syndrome, Determines Potential for Spread of Ricefield Weeds by Gulls
title_sort seed size, not dispersal syndrome, determines potential for spread of ricefield weeds by gulls
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10096937/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37050096
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants12071470
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