Accompanying R code 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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ftroysocietyfig:oai:figshare.com:article/6880352 2023-05-15T15:59:27+02:00 Accompanying R code from Special delivery: scavengers direct seed dispersal towards ungulate carcasses S. M. J. G. Steyaert S. C. Frank S. Puliti R. Badia M. P. Arnberg J. Beardsley A. Økelsrud R. Blaalid 2018-07-31T05:46:19Z https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.6880352.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Accompanying_R_code_from_Special_delivery_scavengers_direct_seed_dispersal_towards_ungulate_carcasses/6880352 unknown doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.6880352.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Accompanying_R_code_from_Special_delivery_scavengers_direct_seed_dispersal_towards_ungulate_carcasses/6880352 CC BY 4.0 CC-BY Ecology Animal Behaviour carrion ecology directed seed dispersal Empetrum nigrum endozoochory Rangifer tarandus scavengers Dataset 2018 ftroysocietyfig https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.6880352.v1 2022-01-01T19:46:19Z 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 faeces (birds and foxes) was concentrated around carcasses. Second, faeces 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. Dataset Crowberry Empetrum nigrum Rangifer tarandus Tundra The Royal Society: Figshare |
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Open Polar |
collection |
The Royal Society: Figshare |
op_collection_id |
ftroysocietyfig |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Ecology Animal Behaviour carrion ecology directed seed dispersal Empetrum nigrum endozoochory Rangifer tarandus scavengers |
spellingShingle |
Ecology Animal Behaviour carrion ecology directed seed dispersal Empetrum nigrum endozoochory Rangifer tarandus scavengers S. M. J. G. Steyaert S. C. Frank S. Puliti R. Badia M. P. Arnberg J. Beardsley A. Økelsrud R. Blaalid Accompanying R code from Special delivery: scavengers direct seed dispersal towards ungulate carcasses |
topic_facet |
Ecology Animal Behaviour carrion ecology directed seed dispersal Empetrum nigrum endozoochory Rangifer tarandus 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 faeces (birds and foxes) was concentrated around carcasses. Second, faeces 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 |
Dataset |
author |
S. M. J. G. Steyaert S. C. Frank S. Puliti R. Badia M. P. Arnberg J. Beardsley A. Økelsrud R. Blaalid |
author_facet |
S. M. J. G. Steyaert S. C. Frank S. Puliti R. Badia M. P. Arnberg J. Beardsley A. Økelsrud R. Blaalid |
author_sort |
S. M. J. G. Steyaert |
title |
Accompanying R code from Special delivery: scavengers direct seed dispersal towards ungulate carcasses |
title_short |
Accompanying R code from Special delivery: scavengers direct seed dispersal towards ungulate carcasses |
title_full |
Accompanying R code from Special delivery: scavengers direct seed dispersal towards ungulate carcasses |
title_fullStr |
Accompanying R code from Special delivery: scavengers direct seed dispersal towards ungulate carcasses |
title_full_unstemmed |
Accompanying R code from Special delivery: scavengers direct seed dispersal towards ungulate carcasses |
title_sort |
accompanying r code from special delivery: scavengers direct seed dispersal towards ungulate carcasses |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.6880352.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Accompanying_R_code_from_Special_delivery_scavengers_direct_seed_dispersal_towards_ungulate_carcasses/6880352 |
genre |
Crowberry Empetrum nigrum Rangifer tarandus Tundra |
genre_facet |
Crowberry Empetrum nigrum Rangifer tarandus Tundra |
op_relation |
doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.6880352.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Accompanying_R_code_from_Special_delivery_scavengers_direct_seed_dispersal_towards_ungulate_carcasses/6880352 |
op_rights |
CC BY 4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.6880352.v1 |
_version_ |
1766395410336710656 |