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Seed Removal by the Red-Rumped Agouti, <I>Dasyprocta Leporina</I>

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Seed Removal by the Red-Rumped Agouti, <I>Dasyprocta Leporina</I> Clemson University TigerPrints All Theses Theses 8-2010 Seed Removal by the Red-Rumped Agouti, Dasyprocta leporina, on a Caribbean Island Benton Taylor Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses Part of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons Recommended Citation Taylor, Benton, "Seed Removal by the Red-Rumped Agouti, Dasyprocta leporina, on a Caribbean Island" (2010). All Theses. 905. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/905 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SEED REMOVAL BY THE RED-RUMPED AGOUTI, Dasyprocta leporina , ON A CARIBBEAN ISLAND A Thesis Presented to The Graduate School of Clemson University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree MASTER OF SCIENCE Biological Sciences By Benton Taylor August 2010 Dr. Saara J. DeWalt, Committee Chair Dr. Kalan Ickes Dr. Michael Childress Dr. Pat Gerard ABSTRACT Agoutis are important seed dispersers as well as predators of numerous plant species in Neotropical continental rainforests, but little is known about their role as seed removers (dispersers and predators) on islands. We investigated seed removal of seven rain forest species on the island of Dominica in the Lesser Antilles by the entire seed remover community and specifically by the Red-rumped Agouti, Dasyprocta leporina , a scatterhoarding rodent introduced to the island approximately 2500 years ago. We recorded removal rates from 168 experimentally placed seed groups containing a total of 1356 seeds of six canopy tree species and one liana species. Seed groups were either accessible to the entire seed remover community or placed within exclosures designed to exclude agoutis. We found that 47 percent of the seeds were removed after 13 days, with 26 percent of removed seeds being taken by agoutis. Species with smaller seeds were preferentially taken by seed removers other than agoutis, whereas agoutis were responsible for the majority of the removal of the seeds of larger-seeded species. This introduced scatterhoarder clearly plays an important role in determining the movement and fate of seeds in Dominican rain forests, particularly for the largest seeded species that much of the rest of the animal community does not disperse or consume. ii DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to Thomas W. and Janet K. Taylor, whose tireless teachings and love of the natural world and its investigation led me to become the scientist that I am today. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would have been in no way possible without the help of numerous individuals and institutions. First I would like to thank my co-advisors, Dr. Kalan Ickes and Dr. Saara Dewalt for the countless hours of teaching, planning, and revising that they have put into this project and my graduate studies as a whole. I would also like to thank Dr. Childress and Dr. Gerard for their invaluable help with the experimental design and the statistical analysis of this research. The specific challenges of conducting research in a foreign country are numerous and would not have been overcome without the support of a number of people. Arlington James and the Dominican Forestry and Wildlife Division provided both permits and invaluable advice. Thanks also to Nancy Osler and the staff of the Archbold Tropical Research and Education Center made the months of research in a foreign country feel like home. Throughout the research period of my graduate studies, a number of colleagues provided me guidance and direction. Elvis Stedman and Adam Martin deserve thanks for their botanical and natural history teachings. I would also like to thank Jennifer Jones, Deenie Quinn, and Brendan Morris for their suggestions and support throughout my research. Also thanks to Kimisha Thomas for immeasurable assistance with logistics and morale while working in Dominica. Guidance and revisions of this thesis were provided by the DeWalt lab, especially Carrie Woods and Danielle Zoellner, were critical to the completion of this thesis. iv Finally, I would like to thank Hap Wheeler and the Biological Sciences Department of Clemson University for funding and support throughout my graduate career. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... II DEDICATION .................................................................................................................. III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. IV LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................... VIII LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... IX CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................... 10 THE INTERACTIONS OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS ...................................... 10 THE INTERACTIONS OF PLANTS AND MAMMALS ................................... 11 SCATTERHOARDING ........................................................................................ 15 THE COEVOLUTION OF PLANTS AND MAMMALS ................................... 19 FRUIT TYPES AND DISPERSAL IMPLICATIONS ......................................... 21 CONSEQUENCES OF SEED DISPERSAL ........................................................ 22 SEED DISPERSAL IN THE TROPICS ............................................................... 24 BIOGEOGRAPHY OF TROPICAL ISLANDS ................................................... 27 ISLANDS OF THE LESSER ANTILLEAN ARCHIPELAGO ........................... 29 DOMINCA, WEST INDIES ................................................................................. 30 DASYPROCTA LEPORINA ............................................................................... 31 FOCAL PLANT SPECIES ................................................................................... 34 CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH MANUSCRIPT ............................................................. 38 vi INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 38 METHODS............................................................................................................ 41 RESULTS.............................................................................................................. 47 DISCUSSION ....................................................................................................... 48 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................... 52 LITERATURE CITED ..................................................................................................... 58 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Seed mass, length, width, and the average adult densities in each study region (individuals/ha) of each study species. Adult densities were estimated from 0.25-ha tree plots found in each region (6 in the NE, 4 in the NW, and 7 in the SE). ........................... 54 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Diagram of the three study regions on the island of Dominica, the placement of transects within each region (NE, NW, SW), and the placement of seed groups along each transect. ............................................................................................................................. 55 Figure 2. (A) Predicted probability of seed removal (+ 1 SE) for each study species in control treatments (all seed removers allowed) and exclosure treatments (agoutis excluded). Species are arranged in order of increasing seed mass. Asterisks indicate species for which the probability of a seed being removed differed significantly between control and exclosure treatments. (B) Difference in predicted probability of seed removal (curve) between control and exclosure treatments as a function of seed mass. The difference between control and exclosure treatments is the amount of seed removal attributed to agoutis. Average seed mass (points) for each study species is plotted against the probability of seed removal of that species by agoutis for reference. Species codes correspond to those presented in Table 1. ........................................................................ 56 Figure 3. Predicted probability of seed removal in control and exclosure treatments as a function of regional conspecific adult seed density. ......................................................... 57 ix CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW THE INTERACTIONS OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS Within any ecosystem there exist numerous species occupying various habitats and trophic levels, and inevitably interacting with one another in a variety of different ways. For some species these interactions provide a source of food, for others a source of mortality, but for all species these interactions with the surrounding biota serve as a means of dividing up the resources found within the surrounding ecosystem. One of the most common and most studied set of species interactions is those that exist between plants and animals. As primary producers of ecosystems, plants often serve as food sources for animals by transforming light energy into useable forms of carbon-based sugars. Thus plants serve as the base point of all useable energy
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