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Fern and bryophyte endozoochory by slugs

Boch, Steffen ; Berlinger, Matthias ; Fischer, Markus ; Knop, Eva ; Nentwig, Wolfgang ; Türke, Manfred ; Prati, Daniel

In: Oecologia, 2013, vol. 172, no. 3, p. 817-822

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    Titre
    • Fern and bryophyte endozoochory by slugs
    Auteur
    • Boch, Steffen. Institute of Plant Sciences and Botanical Garden, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013, Bern, Switzerland
    • Berlinger, Matthias. Institute of Plant Sciences and Botanical Garden, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013, Bern, Switzerland
    • Fischer, Markus. Institute of Plant Sciences and Botanical Garden, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013, Bern, Switzerland
    • Knop, Eva. Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 6, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
    • Nentwig, Wolfgang. Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 6, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
    • Türke, Manfred. Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Technische Universität München, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2 Freising-Weihenstephan, 85350, Munchen, Germany
    • Prati, Daniel. Institute of Plant Sciences and Botanical Garden, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013, Bern, Switzerland
    Type de document
    • Postprint
    Identifiant OAI-PMH
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:322482
    Summary
    Endozoochory plays a prominent role for the dispersal of seed plants, and dispersal vectors are well known. However, for taxa such as ferns and bryophytes, endozoochory has only been suggested anecdotally but never tested in controlled experiments. We fed fertile leaflets of three ferns and capsules of four bryophyte species to three slug species. We found that, overall, spores germinated from slug feces in 57.3% of all 89 fern and in 51.3% of all 117 bryophyte samples, showing that the spores survived gut passage of slugs. Moreover, the number of samples within which spores successfully germinated did not differ among plant species but varied strongly among slug species. This opens new ecological perspectives suggesting that fern and bryophyte endozoochory by gastropods is a so-far-overlooked mode of dispersal, which might increase local population sizes of these taxa by spore deposition on suitable substrates