被消化并不总是一件坏事。根据一项最新的研究:一种产于南美洲的野生辣椒chacoense的种子,在经过了小嘴拟霸鹟——一种常见的霸鹟科鸟类——肠道后,其发芽的可能性大概提高了4倍。
长期以来,生态学家一直认为:鸟类通常负责帮助植物从母本传播种子到各个地方,以减少幼苗死于与成株植物患有相同疾病或激烈竞争的可能性。但就这种辣椒而言,与母本植物的距离对其成活没有任何影响。
相反,研究人员发现:实际上,肠道可以将一种常见的致病真菌移除,同时清洗掉种子本身所带有的被蚂蚁所喜欢的气味。
这是第一次有人证明:被消化实际上有助于保护种子免受捕食和感染的威胁,研究小组在6月的《生态学通讯》上对此进行了报道。(生物谷 Bioon.com)
生物谷推荐的英文摘要
Ecology Letters doi: 10.1111/ele.12134
When condition trumps location: seed consumption by fruit-eating birds removes pathogens and predator attractants
Fricke Evan C EC,Simon Melissa J MJ,Reagan Karen M KM,Levey Douglas J DJ,Riffell Jeffrey A JA,Carlo Tomás A TA,Tewksbury Joshua J JJ
Seed ingestion by frugivorous vertebrates commonly benefits plants by moving seeds to locations with fewer predators and pathogens than under the parent. For plants with high local population densities, however, movement from the parent plant is unlikely to result in 'escape' from predators and pathogens. Changes to seed condition caused by gut passage may also provide benefits, yet are rarely evaluated as an alternative. Here, we use a common bird-dispersed chilli pepper (Capsicum chacoense) to conduct the first experimental comparison of escape-related benefits to condition-related benefits of animal-mediated seed dispersal. Within chilli populations, seeds dispersed far from parent plants gained no advantage from escape alone, but seed consumption by birds increased seed survival by 370% - regardless of dispersal distance - due to removal during gut passage of fungal pathogens and chemical attractants to granivores. These results call into question the pre-eminence of escape as the primary advantage of dispersal within populations and document two overlooked mechanisms by which frugivores can benefit fruiting plants.