Plant ecology meets animal cognition: impacts of animal memory on seed dispersal
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- 作者：Elizabeth A. John ; Francesca Soldati ; Oliver H. P. Burman ; Anna Wilkinson…
- 关键词：Animal behaviour ; Frugivory ; Animal learning ; Animal memory seed dispersal ; Endozoochory ; Plant–animal interactions
- 刊名：Plant Ecology
- 出版年：2016
- 出版时间：November 2016
- 年：2016
- 卷：217
- 期：11
- 页码：1441-1456
- 全文大小：815 KB
- 刊物类别：Biomedical and Life Sciences
- 刊物主题：Life Sciences
Plant Sciences - 出版者：Springer Netherlands
- ISSN：1573-5052
- 卷排序：217
文摘
We propose that an understanding of animal learning and memory is critical to predicting the impacts of animals on plant populations through processes such as seed dispersal, pollination and herbivory. Focussing on endozoochory, we review the evidence that animal memory plays a role in seed dispersal, and present a model which allows us to explore the fundamental consequences of memory for this process. We demonstrate that decision-making by animals based on their previous experiences has the potential to determine which plants are visited, which fruits are selected to be eaten from the plant and where seeds are subsequently deposited, as well as being an important determinant of animal survival. Collectively, these results suggest that the impact of animal learning and memory on seed dispersal is likely to be extremely important, although to date our understanding of these processes suffers from a conspicuous lack of empirical support. This is partly because of the difficulty of conducting appropriate experiments but is also the result of limited interaction between plant ecologists and those who work on animal cognition. We believe that an improved understanding of the effects of animal memory in endozoochorous interactions will allow better prediction of the impacts of ecosystem changes such as habitat fragmentation, introductions of novel species of plants and animals and reintroductions of animal populations to areas from which they have been extirpated, and hope that the ideas we put forward here provide an impetus for further work in this area.