Linked Life Data

20146848

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/20146848

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
1
pubmed:dateCreated
2010-2-11
pubmed:abstractText
Extended drought on the Edwards Plateau, TX, causes high mortality in grass species' populations and their replacement by recruitment from the seeds of survivors. Harvester ant nests may act as refugia for perennial plants during drought, as evidenced by a high survivorship of plants directly adjacent to nests. Because grasses tend to disperse seeds short distances and drought eliminated seed banks, we hypothesized that the spatial pattern of grass seedlings and adults would be clumped at small scales around these refugia. In contrast, nests would be regular at small to moderate scales. We studied the spatial patterns of seedlings, adults, and ant nest locations using a modified Ripley's K-function technique for transect data. Point data were collected along a 1-km transect. Spatially regular patterns were found for nests from 1.0- to 22.0-m scales. We found that two species' seedlings and adults were significantly clumped with ant nests, and two species had significantly regular spatial patterns with nests. Surprisingly, patterns of clumped seedlings occurred up to 30-m scales with nests. Nests appear to affect seedling establishment at multiple scales. These results suggest that nests may facilitate colonization for some grass populations, but regular spatial patterns in other species imply that forager seed harvest may inhibit establishment.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Feb
pubmed:issn
1938-2936
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Electronic
pubmed:volume
39
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
127-33
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2010
pubmed:articleTitle
Spatial patterns of grass seedling recruitment imply predation and facilitation by harvester ants.
pubmed:affiliation
Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77810, USA. nnicolai@unm.edu
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't