A seed predator drives the evolution of a seed dispersal mutualism

Abstract

Although antagonists are hypothesized to impede the evolution of mutualisms, they may simultaneously exert selection favouring the evolution of alternative mutualistic interactions. We found that increases in limber pine (Pinus flexilis) seed defences arising from selection exerted by a pre-dispersal seed predator (red squirrel Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) reduced the efficacy of limber pine's primary seed disperser (Clark's nutcracker Nucifraga columbiana) while enhancing seed dispersal by ground-foraging scatter-hoarding rodents (Peromyscus). Thus, there is a shift from relying on primary seed dispersal by birds in areas without red squirrels, to an increasing reliance on secondary seed dispersal by scatter-hoarding rodents in areas with red squirrels. Seed predators can therefore drive the evolution of seed defences, which in turn favour alternative seed dispersal mutualisms that lead to major changes in the mode of seed dispersal. Given that adaptive evolution in response to antagonists frequently impedes one kind of mutualistic interaction, the evolution of alternative mutualistic interactions may be a common by-product.