RESEARCH ARTICLE
Effectiveness of Dispersal of an Ornithocorous Cactus Myrtillocactus geometrizans (Cactaceae) in a Patchy Environment
Mónica G. Pérez-Villafaña*, Alfonso Valiente-Banuet
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2009Volume: 2
First Page: 101
Last Page: 113
Publisher Id: TOBIOJ-2-101
DOI: 10.2174/1874196700902010101
Article History:
Received Date: 17/12/2008Revision Received Date: 25/03/2009
Acceptance Date: 26/05/2009
Electronic publication date: 10/9/2009
Collection year: 2009
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Effectiveness of seed dispersal by different species that feed on the fruits of Myrtillocactus geometrizans was evaluated, considering both quantity and quality of dispersal, in a patch of tropical deciduous forest in Zapotitlán de las Salinas. Effectiveness was estimated to be strongly influenced by the post-foraging movements of the frugivores, leading us to suggest that the quality component of seed dispersal occupies a central role in the assessment of disperser effectiveness and to expect that dispersers that stay in the tropical deciduous forest patch after foraging would have highest effectiveness. Birds were the principal dispersers of M. geometrizans. This was particularly true of Phainopepla nitens, since this species showed a high fidelity within the tropical deciduous forest. These observations emphasize that it is important to determine the post-foraging habits of seed dispersers that may move across vegetation patches over the landscape in order to obtain a complete assessment of their role in Neotropical environments.