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Ecology

Feeding patterns on forest floors

Nature volume 390, pages 231–232 (1997)Cite this article

There are many reasons why patterns emerge in the arrangement of individuals in a population. The environment may be patchy, providing a mosaic template for the patterns of populations; individuals may interact with their neighbours — both positively and negatively — to create non-random arrangements; or dispersion may reflect historical processes, dispersal capacity or the presence of barriers. In the case of plants, the static nature of which lends itself to the study of patterns, arrangements can also arise from the activities of more mobile organisms that consume fruits and, in so doing, disperse seeds.

Pattern in a plant population is essentially a departure from randomness in the dispersion of the individuals. The involvement of animals in the creation of these patterns is certainly not a new idea — dietary preferences in grazing animals, the engineering activities of beavers, the wallowing of peccaries, and the catastrophic disturbance by foraging of wild pigs can all create patches in the environment which support distinctive vegetation. But the direct effect of vertebrate herbivores on the dispersal and survival of seeds influences the final spatial arrangement of mature plants in a much more subtle way.

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Figure 1: By ingesting seeds and excreting them some distance from the ‘parent’ plant, animals can influence the pattern of plants on the forest floor.

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References

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  1. the Division of Life Sciences, Kings College, Campden Hill Road, London, W8 7AH, UK

    Peter D. Moore

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  1. Peter D. Moore
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Moore, P. Feeding patterns on forest floors. Nature 390, 231–232 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/36731

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