Science：动物帮助植物“传宗接代”
生物谷报道：最新一期Science发表研究论文，表明动物活动对植被繁衍有重大作用。
当树木的种子隐藏在被动物食用的果实之中，或是能搭乘皮毛或羽毛的便车的话，这些种子容易着落在更好的种植场所，而由风所携带的种子则可能到达任何的地方。这一新的发现似乎可以解释为什么随着周边树林的消失，某些品种的树木能够存活下来，而另外一些树木的生存则处在挣扎之中，这可能对林木保护有所帮助。
在一项对跨越西班牙大陆生长在极为多样化的拼镶式环境中近9万个森林小区的研究中，Daniel Montoya及其同事发现，34个树种中有24个树种受到了林木丧失的负面影响。然而，该研究团队发现，不同的树种具有令人吃惊的范围宽泛的反应，并且，周边森林覆盖的消失实际上对6个树种还具有正面的影响。例如，结有果实的漆树Rhus coriaria，以及一类核桃树Juglans regia 已被证明在不断稀疏的森林覆盖中仍然能相对健壮地生长。Montoya报告说，这些树木存活的一个关键是动物在播撒那些依然存活的树木的种子。这些初步的发现指出，将植物与动物的相互作用作为保护政策的基础是多么重要。它们还可能提示有一种策略可以用来预测个体物种对栖息地丧失及森林片断化所作的反应。（生物谷www.bioon.com）
Animal Versus Wind Dispersal and the Robustness of Tree Species to Deforestation
1 Departamento de Ecología, Universidad de Alcalá, 28871 Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.
2 Departamento de Ecología, Universidad de Alcalá, 28871 Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.; Centro de Investigación Forestal, Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria, Carretera de la Coruña km 7,5 28040 Madrid, Spain.
3 Microsoft Research Cambridge, 7 J. J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0FB, UK.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Daniel Montoya , E-mail: daniel.montoya@alu.uah.es
Studies suggest that populations of different species do not decline equally after habitat loss. However, empirical tests have been confined to fine spatiotemporal scales and have rarely included plants. Using data from 89,365 forest survey plots covering peninsular Spain, we explored, for each of 34 common tree species, the relationship between probability of occurrence and the local cover of remaining forest. Twenty-four species showed a significant negative response to forest loss, so that decreased forest cover had a negative effect on tree diversity, but the responses of individual species were highly variable. Animal-dispersed species were less vulnerable to forest loss, with six showing positive responses to decreased forest cover. The results imply that plant-animal interactions help prevent the collapse of forest communities that suffer habitat destruction.
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