Seed dispersal distance is more strongly correlated with plant height than with seed mass
2011/07/05 by Fiona J. Thomson, Angela T. Moles, Tony D. Auld +1 · 695 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · #Biological dispersal #Biology #Botany #Ecology #Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies #Plant and animal studies #Plant species #Population #Rangeland and Wildlife Management #Seed dispersal #Seed dispersal syndrome
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2745.2011.01867.x
published in Journal of Ecology 99(6), 1299-1307 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 2011/07/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Abstract
Summary 1. It is often assumed that there is a trade‐off between maternal provisioning and dispersal capacity, leading small‐seeded species to disperse further than large‐seeded species. However, this relationship between dispersal distance and seed mass has only been quantified for species from particular sites or with particular dispersal syndromes. 2. We provided the first large‐scale, cross‐species quantification of the correlations between dispersal distance and both seed mass and plant height. Seed mass was positively related to mean dispersal distance, with a 100‐fold increase in seed mass being associated with a 4.5‐fold increase in mean dispersal distance ( R 2 = 0.16; n = 210 species; P < 0.001). However, plant height had substantially stronger explanatory power than did seed mass, and we found a 5‐fold increase in height was associated with a 4.6‐fold increase in mean dispersal distance ( R 2 = 0.54; n = 211 species; P < 0.001). 3. Once plant height was accounted for, we found that small‐seeded species dispersed further than did large‐seeded species ( R 2 = 0.54; n = 181 species; slope = −0.130; P < 0.001); however, seed mass only added 2% to the R 2 of the model. Within dispersal syndromes, tall species dispersed further than did short species, while seed mass had little influence on dispersal distance. 4. Synthesis. These findings enhance our understanding of plant life‐history strategies and improve our ability to predict which species are best at colonizing new environments.
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