Factors affecting seed rain beneath fleshy-fruited plants

Abstract

We investigated factors affecting seed rain beneath nine fleshy-fruited fruiting plant species growing in a 1-ha plot of planted Pinus thunbergii in central Japan. We tested whether the numbers of seeds and seed species dropped by birds beneath fruiting plants were correlated with the number of fruits removed by birds from the plants. Most of fruiting plant species with high fruit removal had significantly high seed rain. Both the numbers of seeds and seed species dropped were significantly, positively correlated with the number of fruits removed across for all fruiting plant species. Therefore, fruit removal predicted the difference among heterospecific fruiting plants in seed rain. We also tested whether the number of fruits removed from fruiting plants by birds was related with fruit crop size, fruit size, and height of the plants, and the numbers of fruits and fruit species of neighboring plants near the plants. Most of fruiting plant species with high fruit crop size had significantly high fruit removal. The number of fruits removed was significantly, positively correlated with both the fruit crop size and the number of neighboring fruits across the nine fruiting plant species. However, the effect of the neighboring fruit density on fruit removal was lower remarkably than that of fruit crop size. Therefore, fruit crop size best predicted the differences among heterospecific fruiting plants in fruit removal. We suggest that fruiting plant species with high fruit crop size and high fruit removal contribute to intensive seed rain beneath them.