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Dispersal Kernels (dispersal + kernel)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Life Sciences	93%

Kinds of Dispersal Kernels

seed dispersal kernel

Selected Abstracts

Dispersal kernels of the invasive alien western corn rootworm and the effectiveness of buffer zones in eradication programmes in Europe

ANNALS OF APPLIED BIOLOGY, Issue 1 2010
L.R. Carrasco
Europe is attempting to contain or, in some regions, to eradicate the invading and maize destroying western corn rootworm (WCR). Eradication and containment measures include crop rotation and insecticide treatments within different types of buffer zones surrounding new introduction points. However, quantitative estimates of the relationship between the probability of adult dispersal and distance from an introduction point have not been used to determine the width of buffer zones. We address this by fitting dispersal models of the negative exponential and negative power law families in logarithmic and non-logarithmic form to recapture data from nine mark-release-recapture experiments of marked WCR adults from habitats as typically found in the vicinity of airports in southern Hungary in 2003 and 2004. After each release of 4000,6300 marked WCR, recaptures were recorded three times using non-baited yellow sticky traps at 30,305 m from the release point and sex pheromone-baited transparent sticky traps placed at 500,3500 m. Both the negative exponential and negative power law models in non-log form presented the best overall fit to the numbers of recaptured adults (1% recapture rate). The negative exponential model in log form presented the best fit to the data in the tail. The models suggested that half of the dispersing WCR adults travelling along a given bearing will have travelled between 117 and 425 m and 1% of the adults between 775 and 8250 m after 1 day. An individual-based model of dispersal and mortality over a generation of WCR adults indicated that 9.7,45.3% of the adults would escape a focus zone (where maize is only grown once in 3 consecutive years) of 1 km radius and 0.6,21% a safety zone (where maize is only grown once in 2 consecutive years) of 5 km radius and consequently current European Commission (EC) measures are inadequate for the eradication of WCR in Europe. Although buffer zones large enough to allow eradication would be economically unpalatable, an increase of the minimum width of the focus zone from 1 to 5 km and the safety zone from 5 to 50 km would improve the management of local dispersal. [source]

Linking dispersal, immigration and scale in the neutral theory of biodiversity

ECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 12 2009
Ryan A. Chisholm
Abstract In the classic spatially implicit formulation of Hubbell's neutral theory of biodiversity a local community receives immigrants from a metacommunity operating on a relatively slow timescale, and dispersal into the local community is governed by an immigration parameter m. A current problem with neutral theory is that m lacks a clear biological interpretation. Here, we derive analytical expressions that relate the immigration parameter m to the geometry of the plot defining the local community and the parameters of a dispersal kernel. Our results facilitate more rigorous and extensive tests of the neutral theory: we conduct a test of neutral theory by comparing estimates of m derived from fits to empirical species abundance distributions to those derived from dispersal kernels and find acceptable correspondence; and we generate a new prediction of neutral theory by investigating how the shapes of species abundance distributions change theoretically as the spatial scale of observation changes. We also discuss how our main analytical results can be used to assess the error in the mean-field approximations associated with spatially implicit formulations of neutral theory. Ecology Letters (2009) 12: 1385,1393 [source]

Effects of canopy heterogeneity, seed abscission and inertia on wind-driven dispersal kernels of tree seeds

JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2008
Gil Bohrer
Summary 1Understanding seed dispersal by wind and, in particular, long-distance dispersal (LDD) is needed for management of plant populations and communities, especially in response to changes in climate, land use and natural habitats. Numerical models designed to explore complex, nonlinear atmospheric processes are essential tools for understanding the fundamental mechanisms involved in seed dispersal. Yet, thus far, nearly all such models have not explicitly accounted for the spatial heterogeneity that is a typical feature of all ecosystems. 2The recently developed Regional Atmospheric Modelling System (RAMS)-based Forest Large Eddy Simulation (RAFLES) is used here to explore how within-stand canopy heterogeneity impacts LDD. RAFLES resolves microscale canopy heterogeneity such as small gaps and variable tree heights, and it simulates their impacts on turbulence inside and above the canopy in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). For that purpose, an Eulerian,Lagrangian module of seed dispersal is added to RAFLES to simulate seed trajectories. 3Particular attention is paid to the sensitivity of statistical attributes of the dispersal kernels (i.e. mean, mode, variance, tail) to key simplifications common to all seed dispersal models, such as horizontal homogeneity in the canopy and flow field, and the tight coupling between air parcel trajectories and seed trajectories (i.e. neglecting seed inertia). These attributes appear to be sensitive to various factors operating at scales ranging from the seed scale to the ABL scale. 4Simulations with RAFLES show that LDD is characterized by a dispersal kernel with a ,tail', asymptotically approaching a power law decay of ,3/2 (mainly occurring for lighter seeds at high wind speeds). This is consistent with asymptotic predictions from analytical models. The wind speed threshold at which seed abscission occurs, set-up to be twice the standard deviation of the vertical wind speed, is shown to affect short-distance dispersal, but has no significant impact on LDD. Ignoring the effects of seed inertia on the seed trajectory calculations has a minor effect on short-distance dispersal and no effect on the probability of seed uplift. Thus, it has no significant impact on LDD. 5Synthesis. Tree-scale canopy heterogeneity affects the turbulence characteristics inside and above the canopy and, consequently, this affects dispersal kernel statistics. A key finding from this study is that ejection is enhanced above the shorter trees of the canopy. Seeds dispersed above shorter trees have a higher probability of experiencing LDD while their short-distance dispersal remains practically the same. At inter-annual time scales, such interactions could affect species composition. [source]

Estimation of the seed dispersal kernel from exact identification of source plants

MOLECULAR ECOLOGY, Issue 23 2007
JUAN J. ROBLEDO-ARNUNCIO
Abstract The exact identification of individual seed sources through genetic analysis of seed tissue of maternal origin has recently brought the full analytical potential of parentage analysis to the study of seed dispersal. No specific statistical methodology has been described so far, however, for estimation of the dispersal kernel function from categorical maternity assignment. In this study, we introduce a maximum-likelihood procedure to estimate the seed dispersal kernel from exact identification of seed sources. Using numerical simulations, we show that the proposed method, unlike other approaches, is independent of seed fecundity variation, yielding accurate estimates of the shape and range of the seed dispersal kernel under varied sampling and dispersal conditions. We also demonstrate how an obvious estimator of the dispersal kernel, the maximum-likelihood fit of the observed distribution of dispersal distances to seed traps, can be strongly biased due to the spatial arrangement of seed traps relative to source plants. Finally, we illustrate the use of the proposed method with a previously published empirical example for the animal-dispersed tree species Prunus mahaleb. [source]

Implications of 19th century landscape patterns for the recovery of Fagus crenata forests

APPLIED VEGETATION SCIENCE, Issue 2 2005
Shinya Ohtani
Abstract Questions: What is the effect of the 19th century (pre-industrialization) landscape pattern on the recovery of climax forests in cool-temperate mountain areas dominated by Fagus crenata (Japanese beech)? Location: Secondary forests on Mt. Daisen, western Japan. Methods: Vegetation patterns before and after industrialization were obtained from maps drawn in 1898 and 1979. Tree measurements were made in 12 plots in 1997. Correlation between current Fagus crenata dominance and forest edge in the 19th century was analysed using an S-shaped regression curve. Fagus juvenile density was counted in the plots, and distances from each plot to the five nearest mother trees were measured to determine the dispersal kernel. Results: Secondary grassland covered a substantial area in 1898, whereas forest covered most of the area in 1997. Fagus was dominant in places in the interior forest 100 years ago, and mature Fagus trees were absent in secondary forests that had been grasslands in 1898. The expected number of juveniles decreased to one individual per 100 m2 at 43.5 m from the mother tree. Conclusions: The pre-industrialization landscape greatly affected recovery of Fagus forest. Forests found on the 1898 vegetation map might have acted as refugia for Fagus. The limited dispersal ability of Fagus suggests that it would take many generations (several hundred years) for Fagus forests to recover at the centre of what had been grasslands in the 19th century. [source]

Linking dispersal, immigration and scale in the neutral theory of biodiversity

Effects of canopy heterogeneity, seed abscission and inertia on wind-driven dispersal kernels of tree seeds

Developmental changes in habitat associations of tropical trees

JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 3 2007
LIZA S. COMITA
Summary 1Recent studies have documented local-scale associations between tree species and topographic and edaphic habitat types in forests worldwide. To determine whether such associations form at early life stages, we compared species' positive associations with five habitat types (high plateau, low plateau, slope, streamside, and swamp) at two life stages for 80 tree and shrub species in a Panamanian lowland forest. 2Nineteen significant, positive habitat associations were detected at the small tree stage (seedlings and saplings , 20 cm tall and < 1 cm d.b.h.), and 18 at the large tree stage (individuals , 1 cm d.b.h.), according to results of torus-translation randomization tests. The majority of species did not show consistent associations at the two stages. Of the 30 species significantly associated with a habitat, only five were associated with the same habitat at both stages. Overall, more species were associated with the wetter slope habitat at the large tree stage compared with the small tree stage. 3For a subset of species, we examined the relationship between observed habitat associations and seed dispersal and seedling establishment patterns by using species-specific seed dispersal kernels to predict seed rain into each habitat. 4Two-thirds of species associated with a habitat at the large tree stage had higher predicted seed densities in the associated habitat relative to other habitat types, indicating that limited seed dispersal acts to reinforce habitat associations for most species. In contrast, only one-third of the species associated with a habitat at the large tree stage showed evidence of higher seedling establishment rates in the associated habitat compared with other habitats, and an equal number of species appeared to have lower rates of establishment in the habitat that large trees of the species were associated with. 5Overall, our results indicate that habitat associations of large trees typically do not form at early life stages. Rather, many species appear to exhibit different ecological habitat preferences across life stages. Future studies of species' habitat associations should therefore include multiple life stages in order to detect developmental shifts in ecological preferences. [source]

Habitat fragmentation reduces grassland connectivity for both short-distance and long-distance wind-dispersed forbs

JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 6 2005
M. B. SOONS
Summary 1Although habitat loss and fragmentation are assumed to threaten the regional survival of plant species, their effects on regional species dynamics via seed dispersal and colonization have rarely been quantified. 2We assessed the impact of habitat loss and fragmentation on the connectivity, and hence regional survival, of wind-dispersed plant species of nutrient-poor semi-natural grasslands. We did this using a new approach to relate quantified habitat loss and fragmentation to quantified colonization capacity. 3We quantified loss and fragmentation during the 20th century of moist, nutrient-poor semi-natural grasslands in study areas in the Netherlands, as well as their current distribution. After testing how well the habitat distribution matches species distributions of two wind-dispersed grassland forbs (Cirsium dissectum, representative of species with long-distance wind dispersal, and Succisa pratensis, representative of species with short-distance wind dispersal), we combined the habitat distribution data with simulated seed dispersal kernels in order to quantify the impact on connectivity. 4Habitat loss and fragmentation has dramatically reduced both the area (by 99.8%) and the connectivity of the grasslands. The remaining grasslands are practically isolated for seeds dispersed by wind, even for species with high wind dispersal ability (for which, interestingly, connectivity by wind dispersal decreased most). Linear landscape elements hardly contribute to connectivity by wind dispersal. Regional survival of the studied species has become completely dependent on the survival of a few large populations in nature reserves. Other remaining populations are decreasing in number and size and have low colonization capacity. 5Habitat loss and fragmentation have drastically changed the regional species dynamics of wind-dispersed plant species, indicating that it is of utmost importance to preserve remaining populations in nature reserves and that the probability of colonization of new or restored sites is very low, unless the sites are adjacent to occupied sites or dispersal is artificially assisted. [source]

Effective gene dispersal and female reproductive success in Mediterranean maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Aiton)

MOLECULAR ECOLOGY, Issue 14 2006
SANTIAGO C. GONZÁLEZ-MARTÍNEZ
Abstract Understanding population-scale processes that affect allele frequency changes across generations is a long-standing interest in genetic, ecological and evolutionary research. In particular, individual differences in female reproductive success and the spatial scale of gene flow considerably affect evolutionary change and patterns of local selection. In this study, a recently developed maximum-likelihood (ML) method based on established offspring, the Seedling Neighbourhood Model, was applied and exponentially shaped dispersal kernels were fitted to both genetic and ecological data in a widespread Mediterranean pine, Pinus pinaster Aiton. The distribution of female reproductive success in P. pinaster was very skewed (about 10% of trees mothered 50% of offspring) and significant positive female selection gradients for diameter (, = 0.7293) and cone crop (, = 0.4524) were found. The selective advantage of offspring mothered by bigger trees could be due to better-quality seeds. These seeds may show more resilience to severe summer droughts and microsite variation related to water and nutrient availability. Both approaches, ecological and of parentage, consistently showed a long-distance dispersal component in saplings that was not found in dispersal kernels based on seed shadows, highlighting the importance of Janzen-Connell effects and microenvironmental variation for survival at early stages of establishment in this Mediterranean key forest tree. [source]

Fat-tailed gene flow in the dioecious canopy tree species Fraxinus mandshurica var. japonica revealed by microsatellites

MOLECULAR ECOLOGY, Issue 10 2006
S. GOTO
Abstract Pollen flow, seed dispersal and individual reproductive success can be simultaneously estimated from the genotypes of adults and offspring using stochastic models. Using four polymorphic microsatellite loci, gene flow of the wind-pollinated and wind-seed-dispersed dioecious tree species, Fraxinus mandshurica var. japonica, was quantified in a riparian forest, in northern Japan. In a 10.5-ha plot, 74 female adults, 76 male adults and 292 current-year seedlings were mapped and genotyped, together with 200 seeds. To estimate dispersal kernels of pollen and seeds, we applied normal, exponential power, Weibull, bivariate t -distribution kernels, and two-component models consisting of two normal distribution functions, one with a small and one with a large variance. A two-component pollen flow model with a small contribution (26.1%) from short-distance dispersal (, = 7.2 m), and the rest from long-distance flow (, = 209.9 m), was chosen for the best-fitting model. The average distance that integrated pollen flows inside and outside the study plot was estimated to be 196.8 m. Tree size and flowering intensity affected reproduction, and there appeared to be critical values that distinguished reproductively successful and unsuccessful adults. In contrast, the gene flow model that estimated both pollen and seed dispersal from established seedlings resulted in extensive seed dispersal, and the expected spatial genetic structures did not satisfactorily fit with the observations, even for the selected model. Our results advanced small-scale individual-based parentage analysis for quantifying fat-tailed gene flow in wind-mediated species, but also clarified its limitations and suggested future possibilities for gene flow studies. [source]

A NOVEL METHOD OF FITTING SPATIO-TEMPORAL MODELS TO DATA, WITH APPLICATIONS TO THE DYNAMICS OF MOUNTAIN PINE BEETLES

NATURAL RESOURCE MODELING, Issue 4 2008
JUSTIN HEAVILIN
Abstract We develop a modular landscape model for the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) infestation of a stage-structured forest of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Douglas). Beetle attack dynamics are modeled using response functions and beetle movement using dispersal kernels. This modeling technique yields four model candidates. These models allow discrimination between four broad possibilities at the landscape scale: whether or not beetles are subject to an Allee effect at the landscape scale and whether or not host selection is random or directed. We fit the models with aerial damage survey data to the Sawtooth National Recreation Area using estimating functions, which allows for more rapid and complete parameter determination. We then introduce a novel model selection procedure based on facial recognition technology to compliment traditional nonspatial selection metrics. Together with these we are able to select a best model and draw inferences regarding the behavior of the beetle in outbreak conditions. [source]