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Consequences of Intraspecific Variation in Seed Dispersal for Plant Demography, Communities, Evolution and Global Change
AoB PLANTS
  • Rebecca S. Snell, Ohio University
  • Noelle G. Beckman, Utah State University
  • Evan Fricke, Iowa State University
  • Bette A. Loiselle, University of Florida
  • Carolina S. Carvalho, Instituto Tecnológico Vale
  • Landon R. Jones, Purdue University
  • Nathanael I. Lichti, Purdue University
  • Nicky Lustenhouwer, University of California
  • Sebastian J. Schreiber, University of California
  • Christopher Strickland, University of Tennessee
  • Lauren L. Sullivan, University of Missouri
  • Brittany R. Cavazos, Iowa State University
  • Itamar Giladi, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  • Alan Hastings, University of California
  • Kimberly M. Holbrook, The Nature Conservancy
  • Eelke Jongejans, Radboud University
  • Oleg Kogan, California Polytechnic State University
  • Flavia Montaño-Centellas, University of Florida
  • Javiera Rudolph, University of Florida
  • Haldre S. Rogers, Iowa State University
  • Rafal Zwolak, Adam Mickiewicz University
  • Eugene W. Schupp, Utah State University
Document Type
Article
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Publication Date
3-21-2019
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
Disciplines
Abstract

As the single opportunity for plants to move, seed dispersal has an important impact on plant fitness, species distributions and patterns of biodiversity. However, models that predict dynamics such as risk of extinction, range shifts and biodiversity loss tend to rely on the mean value of parameters and rarely incorporate realistic dispersal mechanisms. By focusing on the mean population value, variation among individuals or variability caused by complex spatial and temporal dynamics is ignored. This calls for increased efforts to understand individual variation in dispersal and integrate it more explicitly into population and community models involving dispersal. However, the sources, magnitude and outcomes of intraspecific variation in dispersal are poorly characterized, limiting our understanding of the role of dispersal in mediating the dynamics of communities and their response to global change. In this manuscript, we synthesize recent research that examines the sources of individual variation in dispersal and emphasize its implications for plant fitness, populations and communities. We argue that this intraspecific variation in seed dispersal does not simply add noise to systems, but, in fact, alters dispersal processes and patterns with consequences for demography, communities, evolution and response to anthropogenic changes. We conclude with recommendations for moving this field of research forward.

Citation Information
Rebecca S Snell, Noelle G Beckman, Evan Fricke, Bette A Loiselle, Carolina S Carvalho, Landon R Jones, Nathanael I Lichti, Nicky Lustenhouwer, Sebastian J Schreiber, Christopher Strickland, Lauren L Sullivan, Brittany R Cavazos, Itamar Giladi, Alan Hastings, Kimberly M Holbrook, Eelke Jongejans, Oleg Kogan, Flavia Montaño-Centellas, Javiera Rudolph, Haldre S Rogers, Rafal Zwolak, Eugene W Schupp, Consequences of intraspecific variation in seed dispersal for plant demography, communities, evolution and global change, AoB PLANTS, Volume 11, Issue 4, August 2019, plz016, https://doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plz016