Life Sciences Commons^™

Myrmecochorous Plants And Their Ant Seed Dispersers Through Successional Stages In Temperate Cove Forests, Robert Warren, Mary Schultz, James Costa, Beverly Collins, Mark Bradford

Biology Faculty Datasets

Anthropogenic disturbance can decrease woodland diversity in the species-rich herbaceous layer of eastern deciduous forests, and ant-dispersed (myrmecochorous) plants may be particularly affected due to their limited ability to re-colonize secondary forests. Consequently, we predicted that myrmecochorous plants and their keystone seed-dispersing ants would increase with time since last disturbance, as reflected by young, middle or mature forest successional stage. Specifically, we hypothesized that myrmecochore abundance and richness would be relatively lowest in the youngest forests, moderate in middle-aged forests and highest in mature forests. We also hypothesized that experimentally introducing ant bait in a regular pattern, as might be …