Effects of the small forest carnivores on the recruitment and survival of Liaodong oak (Quercus wutaishanica) seedlings
Effects of the small forest carnivores on the recruitment and survival of Liaodong oak (Quercus wutaishanica) seedlings
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DOI：
10.1016/j.foreco.2004.11.007
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发表时间：
2005-02
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Xianming Gao;Shucun Sun
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Xianming Gao;Shucun Sun
鼬科（Mustelidae）的小型森林食肉动物，如西伯利亚鼬鼠（Mustela sibirica），欧亚獾（Meles meles）和猪獾（Arctonyx collaris）有挖掘土壤动物作为食物的习惯。为了弥补食物短缺，食肉动物增加了昆虫和两栖动物冬眠在地下的福尔斯，以帮助自己度过不利的季节在温带。每一次捕食之后，这些食肉动物都会在森林的地面上挖一个漏斗状的坑。在北京以西约110公里的东灵山地区，辽东栎（Quercus wutaishanica Mayr.）橡树的种子雨几乎与食肉动物在福尔斯挖坑同时发生。由于它们捕获并掩埋橡子，因此坑在一定程度上帮助橡子逃避捕食，从而通过提高橡子和幼苗的存活率而有利于幼苗的补充和建立。为了验证挖坑对辽东栎更新的影响，首先调查了辽东栎盛年橡子的命运（2000年）通过调查不同生境中食肉动物留下的坑，然后在橡树林地面上人工挖坑，检查被困橡子的命运，最后在2000年检查人工坑中的幼苗补充和建立，2001年和2002年分别。结果表明，每个人工坑平均捕获2.0±1.6个橡子（n=300），约1/3的橡子被留下并被掩埋;而在每个人工坑旁边标记的圆圈作为对照，最初捕获的橡子要少得多，种子雨后几周内一个橡子也没有留下。橡树的幼苗被发现出现在超过32%的这些人工坑，其中约90%在2002年存活。因此，假设小食肉动物，以促进橡子的生存和幼苗建立的橡树种在研究区域。
Small forest carnivores of weasel family (Mustelidae) such as Sibirican weasel (Mustela sibirica), the Eurasian badger (Meles meles) and the hog badger (Arctonyx collaris) have a habit of digging for soil animals as their food. To offset the food shortage, the carnivores add insects and amphibians hibernating underground in falls to their diet so as to help themselves get through the adverse seasons in the temperate zones. Each time after getting their prey, the carnivores would dig a funnel-like pit on the forest floor. In Dongling mountainous area, about 110km west to Beijing, where forests are usually dominated by Liaodong oak (Quercus wutaishanica Mayr.), seed rains of the oak almost concur with carnivores-digging pits in falls. Since they caught and then buried acorns, the pits help the acorns escape predation to a certain extent and thereby benefit the seedling recruitment and establishment by enhancing rates of the acorn and seedling survivals. To verify the effects of the pits on Liaodong oak regeneration, first we investigated the fate of acorns of the oak in its mast year (the year 2000) by surveying pits left by the carnivores in different habitats, then artificially dug pits on the oak forest floor and checked the fate of the trapped acorns, and last examined the seedling recruitment and establishment in the artificial pits in 2000, 2001 and 2002, respectively. The results showed that each of the artificial pit caught an average of 2.0±1.6 acorns (n=300), about 1/3 of which remained and got buried; but the circles, which were marked beside each artificial pit on the floor as comparison, caught much fewer acorns at first and none remained a few weeks later after the seed rain. Seedlings of the oak were found emerging from more than 32% of these artificial pits, and about 90% of them survived in 2002. The small carnivores are therefore assumed to facilitate acorn survival and seedling establishment for the oak species in the study area.