Forest-dwelling ungulates and seed dispersal: a comparative approach to three different species: roe deer, red deer and wild boar | Ongulés forestiers et zoochorie : une aproche comparative de 3 espèces : chevreuil, cerf et sanglier

[Notes_IRSTEA]1 page de poster ; ce poster a aussi été présenté au colloque "8th International Symposium on Wild Boar and Other Suids, York, UK, 1-4 September 2010" : les auteurs sont les mêmes sauf pour Muriel Bec remplacée par Eric Baubet [Departement_IRSTEA]Territoires [TR1_IRSTEA]SEDYVIN

International audience

英语. In this project, we will quantify the role of forest-dwelling ungulates as long-distance seed dispersers using a comparative approach of three different species: the red deer (Cervus elaphus) as a grazer species, the roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) as a browser species and the wild boar (Sus scrofa) as an omnivorous frugivorous species. These ungulates are widespread in France and especially in the Centre administrative region. We will adopt an integrative approach by monitoring the fate of seeds from the time they have been eaten or carried out by the animals to their release in the ecosystem.We will treat three main components of the dispersion i) the emigration phase (potential for epi- and endozoochory), ii) the transfer phase (seed retention time converted into a distance covered by wild animals using GPS locations) and iii) the immigration phase (studying ungulates' ability to modify seed germination rate). These 3 key phases will be put together to finally establish seed dispersion curves of a selected pool of forest plant species. This innovative project has the ambition to propose new research hypotheses on the spatial and genetic structuring of ungulate-disseminated plant populations.