Data from: Special delivery: scavengers direct seed dispersal towards ungulate carcasses
Cadaver decomposition-islands around animal carcasses can facilitate establishment of various plant life. Facultative scavengers have great potential for endozoochory, and often aggregate around carcasses. Hence, they may disperse plant seeds that they ingest across the landscape towards cadaver dec...
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.185512 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.h3c55cc |
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ftdryad:oai:v1.datadryad.org:10255/dryad.185512 2023-05-15T15:59:27+02:00 Data from: Special delivery: scavengers direct seed dispersal towards ungulate carcasses Steyaert, Sam M.J.G. Frank, Shane C. Puliti, Stefano Badia, Rudi Arnberg, Mie P. Beardsley, Jack Økelsrud, Asle Blaalid, Rakel 2018-07-25T15:13:33Z http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.185512 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.h3c55cc unknown doi:10.5061/dryad.h3c55cc/1 doi:10.1098/rsbl.2018.0388. doi:10.5061/dryad.h3c55cc Steyaert SMJG, Frank SC, Puliti S, Badia R, Arnberg MP, Beardsley J, Økelsrud A, Blaalid R (2018) Special delivery: scavengers direct seed dispersal towards ungulate carcasses. Biology Letters 14(8): 20180388. http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.185512 carrion ecology directed seed dispersal endozoochory scavengers Article 2018 ftdryad https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.h3c55cc https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.h3c55cc/1 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0388 2020-01-01T16:12:09Z Cadaver decomposition-islands around animal carcasses can facilitate establishment of various plant life. Facultative scavengers have great potential for endozoochory, and often aggregate around carcasses. Hence, they may disperse plant seeds that they ingest across the landscape towards cadaver decomposition-islands. Here, we demonstrate this novel mechanism along a gradient of wild tundra reindeer carcasses. First, we show that the spatial distribution of scavenger feces (birds and foxes) was concentrated around carcasses. Second, feces of the predominant scavengers (corvids) commonly contained viable seeds of crowberry, a keystone species of the alpine tundra with predominantly vegetative reproduction. We suggest that cadaver decomposition-islands function as endpoints for directed endozoochory by scavengers. Such a mechanism could be especially beneficial for species that rely on small scale disturbances in soil and vegetation, such as several Nordic berry-producing species with cryptic generative reproduction. Article in Journal/Newspaper Crowberry Tundra Dryad Digital Repository (Duke University) |
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Open Polar |
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Dryad Digital Repository (Duke University) |
op_collection_id |
ftdryad |
language |
unknown |
topic |
carrion ecology directed seed dispersal endozoochory scavengers |
spellingShingle |
carrion ecology directed seed dispersal endozoochory scavengers Steyaert, Sam M.J.G. Frank, Shane C. Puliti, Stefano Badia, Rudi Arnberg, Mie P. Beardsley, Jack Økelsrud, Asle Blaalid, Rakel Data from: Special delivery: scavengers direct seed dispersal towards ungulate carcasses |
topic_facet |
carrion ecology directed seed dispersal endozoochory scavengers |
description |
Cadaver decomposition-islands around animal carcasses can facilitate establishment of various plant life. Facultative scavengers have great potential for endozoochory, and often aggregate around carcasses. Hence, they may disperse plant seeds that they ingest across the landscape towards cadaver decomposition-islands. Here, we demonstrate this novel mechanism along a gradient of wild tundra reindeer carcasses. First, we show that the spatial distribution of scavenger feces (birds and foxes) was concentrated around carcasses. Second, feces of the predominant scavengers (corvids) commonly contained viable seeds of crowberry, a keystone species of the alpine tundra with predominantly vegetative reproduction. We suggest that cadaver decomposition-islands function as endpoints for directed endozoochory by scavengers. Such a mechanism could be especially beneficial for species that rely on small scale disturbances in soil and vegetation, such as several Nordic berry-producing species with cryptic generative reproduction. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Steyaert, Sam M.J.G. Frank, Shane C. Puliti, Stefano Badia, Rudi Arnberg, Mie P. Beardsley, Jack Økelsrud, Asle Blaalid, Rakel |
author_facet |
Steyaert, Sam M.J.G. Frank, Shane C. Puliti, Stefano Badia, Rudi Arnberg, Mie P. Beardsley, Jack Økelsrud, Asle Blaalid, Rakel |
author_sort |
Steyaert, Sam M.J.G. |
title |
Data from: Special delivery: scavengers direct seed dispersal towards ungulate carcasses |
title_short |
Data from: Special delivery: scavengers direct seed dispersal towards ungulate carcasses |
title_full |
Data from: Special delivery: scavengers direct seed dispersal towards ungulate carcasses |
title_fullStr |
Data from: Special delivery: scavengers direct seed dispersal towards ungulate carcasses |
title_full_unstemmed |
Data from: Special delivery: scavengers direct seed dispersal towards ungulate carcasses |
title_sort |
data from: special delivery: scavengers direct seed dispersal towards ungulate carcasses |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.185512 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.h3c55cc |
genre |
Crowberry Tundra |
genre_facet |
Crowberry Tundra |
op_relation |
doi:10.5061/dryad.h3c55cc/1 doi:10.1098/rsbl.2018.0388. doi:10.5061/dryad.h3c55cc Steyaert SMJG, Frank SC, Puliti S, Badia R, Arnberg MP, Beardsley J, Økelsrud A, Blaalid R (2018) Special delivery: scavengers direct seed dispersal towards ungulate carcasses. Biology Letters 14(8): 20180388. http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.185512 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.h3c55cc https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.h3c55cc/1 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0388 |
_version_ |
1766395409091002368 |