Seed-dispersal Mutualisms: The Spatio-temporal Dynamics of Fleshy-fruited Plants and Their Avian Dispersers on Landscapes

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Every individual plant is sedentary, yet plant species move over long distances and into new habitats. This project will investigate how birds move invasive plants, to elucidate how fruit-eating birds help plants spread across landscapes by moving their seeds. A model will be built by combining existing information about bird movement patterns and the rates at which seeds pass through birds' digestive systems with newly-collected data on plant survival and reproduction in the habitats that birds move around in. This model will make it possible to test ideas about how bird movements and the preference of birds for certain habitat types influence the speed of migration of bird-dispersed plants. Along with fundamental insights into the ecology of seed dispersal, this research will provide a critical tool in the fight against invasive plants. Invasive plants and animals are the most important threat for up to 80% of the world's threatened or endangered species. Because this work specifically focuses on invasive fruit-eating birds and invasive plants, it will provide information necessary to produce specific, quantitative guidelines for the early detection and control of other invasive, bird-dispersed plants.