What is seed dispersal?
Dispersal is the movement of a seed away from a parent plant. The movement of seeds provides the single opportunity in a plant's life cycle to change its geographic location. This life history event sets the template for all future interactions in a plant's life. Dispersal affects the survival and growth of plants, where plants are distributed around the world, and patterns of biodiversity. There is a clear linkage between seed dispersal, population persistence and spread, biodiversity, and ecosystem function.
How are seeds dispersed?
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Plants have a variety of different methods to disperse seeds. More than half of the world’s plant species are dispersed by vertebrates (Aslan et al. 2013, Rogers et al. 2021). Other modes of seed dispersal include wind, water, gravity, invertebrates as well as explosive dispersal by the plant itself.
Dispersal processes of different vectors will affect the quantity of seeds landing in a location as well as the quality of seeds following dispersal, influencing survival. Following dispersal, the density and distance of neighboring plants and the suitability of the habitat affect survival and growth by mediating interactions with herbivores consuming plants, neighboring plants competing for resources and space, and plant diseases. These ecological interactions dictate the presence of adult plants contributing to populations through gene flow and colonization of new areas, ultimately influencing the distribution of species and functioning of ecosystems.
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Vertebrates
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Explosive
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Wind
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