The Effects of Seed Water Content on the Foraging Success and Cache Management Behavior of Rodents

种子含水量对啮齿动物觅食成功和缓存管理行为的影响

• 批准号: 9707098
• 负责人: Stephen Vander Wall
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: Board of Regents, NSHE, obo University of Nevada, Reno
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1997
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1997-08-15 至 2000-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9707098&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Effects; Seed; Water; Content; Foraging

ABSTRACT 97-07098 Vander Wall The effects of seed water content on the foraging success and cache management behavior of rodents The ways that animals interact with seeds are important focuses of population and community ecology, but the role of the physical environment in these interactions has often been ignored. The water content of the soil influences the ability of rodents to detect buried seeds using olfaction. Seeds imbibe water from the soil after it has rained. Rodents find seeds in moistened soil significantly faster than seeds in dry soil. This research project consists of four field experiments designed to reveal how seed/soil water affects how individual rodents find buried seed caches. Topics of experiments are: (1) the role of spatial memory versus olfaction as mechanisms for cache retrieval and management, (2) the comparative olfactory sensitivities of different rodent varieties, (3) the effect of residence time on the detectability of seeds buried in moist soil, and (4) how cache size and depth influence detectability of seeds.

摘要 种子含水量对啮齿动物觅食成功和缓存管理行为的影响 动物与种子相互作用的方式是种群和群落生态学的重要焦点，但物理环境在这些相互作用中的作用常常被忽视。土壤的含水量影响啮齿动物利用嗅觉探测埋藏种子的能力。下雨后种子从土壤中吸收水分。啮齿动物在潮湿的土壤中找到种子的速度明显快于干燥土壤中的种子。该研究项目包括四个实地实验，旨在揭示种子/土壤水分如何影响单个啮齿动物找到埋藏的种子缓存。实验的主题是：（1）空间记忆与嗅觉作为缓存检索和管理机制的作用，（2）不同啮齿动物品种的嗅觉敏感性比较，（3）停留时间对埋在潮湿土壤中的种子的可探测性的影响，以及（4）缓存大小和深度如何影响种子的可探测性。