Dispersal by ants in Centaurea corymbosa (Asteraceae): What is the elaiosome for?

Plant Species Biology

Volumn 21, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 109-117

  Imbert, Eric ^a  

^a INSTITUT DES SCIENCES DE L EVOLUTION   (France)

Author keywords

Mutualism; Myrmecochory; Seed dispersal; Seedling emergence

Indexed keywords

ASTERACEAE; CENTAUREA; CENTAUREA CORYMBOSA; EUPHORBIA; EUPHORBIA CHARACIAS; FORMICIDAE;

EID: 33745513634     PISSN: 0913557X     EISSN: 14421984     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1442-1984.2006.00156.x     Document Type: Article

References (49)

1. Banovetz S. J. Scheiner S. M. (1994) The effects of seed mass on the seed ecology of Coreopsis lanceolata. American Midland Naturalist 131 : 65 74.
2. Böhning-Gaese K., Gaese B. H. Rabemanantsoa S. B. (1999) Importance of primary and secondary seed dispersal in the malagasy tree Commiphora guillaumini. Ecology 80 : 821 832.
3. Chen H. Maun M. A. (1999) Effects of sand burial depth on seed germination and seedling emergence of Cirsium pitcheri. Plant Ecology 140 : 53 60.
4. Christian C. E. Stanton M. L. (2004) Cryptic consequences of a dispersal mutualism: seed burial, elaiosome removal, and seed-bank dynamics. Ecology 85 : 1101 1110.
5. Colas B., Olivieri I. Riba M. (1997) Centaurea corymbosa, a cliff-dwelling species tottering on the brink of extinction: a demographic and genetic study. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 94 : 3471 3476.
6. Colas B., Riba M., Fréville H. et al. (2000) Introduction as a way to manage endangered plant species: case of the Centaurea corymbosa. Revue d'Ecologie-la Terre et la Vie 133 : 133 134.
7. Colas B., Thomas C. D. Hanski I. (2004) Adaptive responses to landscape disturbances: empirical evidence. In: Ferrière R., Dieckmann U. & Couvet. D. (eds). Evolutionary Conservation Biology. Cambridge Studies in Adaptive Dynamics, Cambridge, pp. 284 299.
8. Culver D. C. Beattie A. J. (1978) Myrmecochory in Viola: dynamics of seed-ant interactions in some West Virginia species. Journal of Ecology 66 : 53 72.
9. Ehrlén J. Eriksson O. (2000) Dispersal limitation and patch occupancy in forest herbs. Ecology 81 : 1667 1674.
10. Ellner S. Shmida A. (1981) Why are adaptations for long-range seed dispersal rare in desert plants ? Oecologia 51 : 133 144.
11. Espadaler X. Gomez C. (1996) Seed production, predation and dispersal in the Mediterranean myrmecochore Euphorbia characias (Euphorbiaceae). Ecography 19 : 7 15.
12. Espadaler X. Gomez C. (2001) Female performance in Euphorbia characias: effect of flower position on seed quantity and quality. Seed Science Research 11 : 163 172.
13. Fréville H., Colas B., Riba M. et al. (2004) Spatial and temporal demographic variability in the endemic plant species Centaurea corymbosa (Asteraceae). Ecology 85 : 694 703.
14. Fréville H., Justy F. Olivieri I. (2001) Comparative allozyme and microsatellite structure in a narrow endemic species, Centaurea corymbosa Pourret (Asteraceae). Molecular Ecology 10 : 879 890.
15. Garrido J. P., Rey P. J., Cerda X. Herrera C. M. (2002) Geographical variation in diaspore traits of an ant-dispersed plant (Helleborus foetidus): are ant community composition and diaspore traits correlated ? Journal of Ecology 90 : 446 455.
16. Giladi I. (2006) Choosing benefits or partners: a review of the evidence for the evolution of myrmecochory. Oikos 112 : 481 492.
17. Gomez C. Espadaler X. (1998) Myrmecochorous dispersal distances: a world survey. Journal of Biogeography 25 : 573 580.
18. Gomez C., Pons P. Bas J. M. (2003) Effects of the Argentine ant Linepithema humile on seed dispersal and seedling emergence of Rhamnus alaternus. Ecography 26 : 532 538.
19. Gorb E. Gorb S. (2000) Effects of seed aggregation on the removal rates of elaiosome-bearing Chelidonium majus and Viola odourata seeds carried by Formica polyctena ants. Ecological Research 15 : 187 192.
20. Horvitz C. C. (1981) Analysis of how ant behaviors affect germination in a tropical myrmecochore Calathea microcephala (P. & E.) Koernicke (Marantaceae): microsite selection and aril removal by neotropical ants, Odotomachus, Pachycondyla, and Solenopsis (Formicidae). Oecologia 51 : 47 52.
21. Hughes L. Westoby M. (1992) Effect of diaspore characteristics on removal of seeds adapted for dispersal by ants. Ecology 73 : 1300 1312.
22. Hughes L., Westoby M. Jurado E. (1994) Convergence of elaiosomes and insect prey: evidence from ant foraging behaviour and fatty acid composition. Functional Ecology 8 : 358 365.
23. Ihaka R. Gentleman R. (1996) R: a language for data analysis and graphics. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics 5 : 299 314.
24. Imbert E. (1999) The effects of achene dimorphism on the dispersal in time and space in Crepis sancta (Asteraceae). Canadian Journal of Botany 77 : 508 513.
25. Jules E. S. (1996) Yellow jackets (Vespula vulgaris) as a second seed dispersed for the myrmecochorous plant, Trillium ovatum. American Midland Naturalist 135 : 367 369.
26. Lanza J., Schmitt M. A. Awad A. B. (1992) Comparative chemistry of elaiosomes of 3 species of Trillium. Journal of Chemical Ecology 18 : 209 221.
27. Lavergne S., Thompson J. D., Garnier E. Debussche M. (2004) The biology and ecology of narrow endemic and widespread plants: a comparative study of trait variation in 20 congeneric pairs. Oikos 107 : 505 518.
28. Levey D. J. Byrne M. M. (1993) Complex ant plant interactions: rain forest ants as secondary dispersers and post-dispersal seed predators. Ecology 74 : 1802 1812.
29. Mark S. Olensen J. M. (1996) Importance of elaiosome size to removal of ant-dispersed seeds. Oecologia 107 : 95 101.
30. Matlack G. (1987) Diaspore size, shape, and fall behavior in wind-dispersed plant species. American Journal of Botany 74 : 1150 1160.
31. Minami S. Azuma A. (2003) Various flying modes of wind-dispersal seeds. Journal of Theoretical Biology 225 : 1 14.
32. Mouquet N., Leadley P., Mériguet J. Loreau M. (2004) Immigration and local competition in herbaceous plant communities: a three-year seed sowing experiment. Oikos 104 : 77 90.
33. Ness J. H., Bronstein J. L., Andersen A. N. Holland J. N. (2004) Ant body size predicts dispersal distance of ant-adapted seeds: implications of small-ant invasions. Ecology 85 : 1244 1250.
34. Ohkawara K., Higashi S. Ohara M. (1996) Effects of ants, ground beetles and the seed-fall patterns on myrmecochory of Erythronium japonicum Decne. (Liliaceae). Oecologia 106 : 500 506.
35. Oostermeijer J. G. B. (1989) Myrmecochory in Polygala vulgaris L., Luzula campestris (L.) DC. & Viola curtisii Forster in a Dutch dune area. Oecologia 78 : 302 311.
36. Passos L. Oliveira P. S. (2002) Ants affect the distribution and performance of seedlings of Clusia criuva, a primarily bird-dispersed rain forest tree. Journal of Ecology 90 : 571 528.
37. Peters M., Oberrath R. Böhning-Gaese K. (2003) Seed dispersal by ants: are seed preferences influenced by foraging strategies or historical constraints ? Flora 98 : 413 420.
38. Quilichini A. Debussche M. (2000) Seed dispersal and germination patterns in a rare Mediterranean island endemic (Anchusa crispa Viv., Boraginaceae). Acta Oecologica 21 : 303 313.
39. Riba M., Mignot A., Fréville H. et al. (2005) Variation in dispersal traits in a narrow-endemic plant species, Centaurea corymbosa Pourret. (Asteraceae). Evolutionary Ecology 19 : 241 254.
40. Ronce O., Olivieri I., Clobert J. Danchin E. (2001) Perspectives on the study of dispersal evolution. In: Clobert J., Danchin E., Dhondt A. A. & Nichols J. D. (eds). Dispersal. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 341 357.
41. Rousset F. Gandon S. (2002) Evolution of the distribution of dispersal distance under distance-dependent cost of dispersal. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 15 : 515 523.
42. Vander Wall S. B. Longland W. S. (2004) Diplochory: are two seed dispersers better than one? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 19 : 155 161.
43. Viegi L., Vangelisit R. Pacini E. (2003) The achene pappi and elaiosomes of Centaurea L. dispersal and germination in some Italian species. Israel Journal of Plant Sciences 51 : 45 54.
44. Wenny D. G. (2001) Advantages of seed dispersal: a re-evaluation of directed dispersal. Evolutionary Ecological Research 3 : 51 74.
45. Westoby M., Rice B. L. Howell J. (1990) Seed size and plant growth form as a factor in dispersal spectra. Ecology 71 : 1307 1315.
46. Wilson G. A. Rannala B. (2003) Bayesian inference of recent migration rates using multilocus genotypes. Genetics 163 : 1177 1191.
47. Witztum A., Schulgasser K. Vogel S. (1996) Upwind movement of achenes of Centaurea eriophora L. on the ground. Annals of Botany 78 : 431 436.
48. Wolff A. Debussche M. (1999) Ants as dispersers in a Mediterranean old-field succession. Oikos 84 : 443 452.
49. Zettler J. A. Spira T. P. (2001) Yellow jackets (Vespula spp.) disperse Trillium (spp.) seeds in Eastern North America. American Midland Naturalist 146 : 444 446.