general id (biodiversity-exploratories.de database BExIS) 13606 versionID 1.1.15 lineage datasetid 0 version 1.0.0 title Seed_removal_beech_forest language en contact author Manfred Türke projectName Invertebrates I abov projectLeader W. Weisser institute Technische Universität München address street Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2 zipCode 85354 city Freising email manfred.tuerke@gmx.net researchObjects landuse grassland no forest yes plotLevel other taxa taxon1 vascular plants processes process1 dispersal activity services service1 colonialisation of new areas methodology introduction We assessed the contribution of different animal groups to the removal and elaiosome consumption of experimentally exposed seeds of two forest myrmecochores, the wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa) and European wild ginger (Asarum europaeum) by differentially excluding rodents, gastropods, and insects in forests dominated by European beech (Fagus sylvatica) under different management. The seed removal experiment was carried out in three regions (1) the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Schorfheide-Chorin in northeastern Germany (NE region) (13°76’ E/ 53°00’ N), (2) the National Park Hainich and its surrounding areas (Hainich-Dün) in central Germany (Central region) (10°47’ E/ 51°15’ N), and (3) the UNESCO Biosphere Area Schwäbische Alb (Swabian Jura) in southwestern Germany (SW region) (9°39’ E/ 48°43’ N) and in 47 plots representing different forest management types in each region. theory Myrmecochore abundance is thought to be negatively related to the abundance of ants in beech forests. We tested the hypothesis that gastropods rather than ants are the most important seed dispersers of myrmecochores in beech forests. type Counting seeds and assessing elaiosome damage. instruments In each plot we exposed seeds in batches of 10 on 10 × 10 cm wooden plates (seed depot), sheltered against rain by a 12.5 × 12.5 cm plastic roof supported by toothpicks. Seeds dropped by plants are exposed on the forest floor similar to our seed depots. We offered seeds while our study species were fruiting, for wood anemone we exposed seeds from 7 May to 11 June 2009 and for wild ginger from 29 June to 25 July 2009. We applied four treatments:(1) all animals had access (control); (2) only rodents and insects had access; (3) only gastropods and insects had access; and (4) only insects had access. We excluded gastropods by outlining the wooden plate with slug repellent paste (IRKA Schneckenabwehrpaste, R + M Gartenbedarf GbR). We excluded rodents by covering the seed depots with an 11 × 11 × 4 cm metal cage with a mesh size of 28 × 10 mm. We provided access for insects while excluding gastropods by using 18 cm long 2.8 mm wide zinc-coated wire to connect the seed depots on each of their four sides to the forest floor. The different treatments were applied to seed depots in the corners of two 4 × 4 m squares (subplots) per plot, which were situated in two opposite corners of each 100 × 100 m plot for a total of 752 seed depots (47 plots × 2 subplots × 4 treatments × 2 plant species). One, two and three days or just three days after exposure (depending on experiment and region) we counted the remaining seeds and recorded feeding traces on seeds or elaiosomes. Seeds of wood anemone were collected after three days and observed with the help of a microscope. If at least 20% of the fruit skin area had been consumed, seeds were treated as having their elaiosome damaged. We additionally counted all red slugs (Arion rufus) we observed, walking a 10 × 10 m area in five transect lines with the subplot in its centre. During the wood anemone experiment we counted slugs on four consecutive days in each subplot and during the wild ginger experiment we counted slugs on the first and on the fourth day. Sampled individuals in each region were dissected for species identification. keywords keyword1 seed dispersal keyword2 seed predation keyword3 myrmecochores keyword4 gastropods keyword5 ants keyword6 myrmecochory keyword7 gastropodochory time when format yyyy-mm-dd startDate 2009-05-07 endDate 2009-07-25 dateEntry 2011-07-13 dateLastModified 2011-07-14 data fileType structuredData manipulations errors qualityLevel processed dataStatus complete dataFormat fileFormat .csv delimiter .csv decimalCharacter . quote missingValues n/a NA n/a orientation columnwise offset 0 header variableNames 1 dataValues 2 variables name typeOfVariable units description block 1 failure character(256) was the seed depot destroyed or did failures occure in excluding certain animals 0 2 species character(16) seeds of the plant species offered 0 3 management character(256) management type of the plot 0 4 region character(256) region or exploratory 0 5 plot character(16) Plot_ID 0 6 subplot character(16) experimental Plot (biodiversity exploratories nomenclature), eg HEW, Plotnumber and corner of the plot where the seeds were offered 0 7 treatment_access_to character(256) animal groups which had access to the seed depot 0 8 date_installation date date of the seed depot installation 0 9 time_installation character(16) time of the seed depot installation 0 10 date_check1 date date of the check of the seed depot after 1 day 0 11 time_check1 character(16) time of the check of the seed depot after 1 day 0 12 seeds_removed_check1 integerNumber number of removed seeds on check 1 0 13 seeds_elaiosome_damage_check1 integerNumber number of seeds with elaiosome damage on check 1 0 14 date_check2 date date of the check of the seed depot after 2 days 0 15 time_check2 character(16) time of the check of the seed depot after 2 days 0 16 seeds_removed_check2 integerNumber number of removed seeds on check 2 0 17 seeds_elaiosome_damage_check2 integerNumber number of seeds with elaiosome damage on check 2 0 18 date_check3 date date of the check of the seed depot after 3 days 0 19 time_check3 character(256) time of the check of the seed depot after 3 days 0 20 seeds_removed_check3 integerNumber number of removed seeds on check 3 0 21 seeds_elaiosome_damage_check3 integerNumber number of seeds with elaiosome damage on check 3 0 22 A_rufus_count_installation integerNumber number of Arion rufus individuals counted on the date of the installation 0 23 A_rufus_count_check1 integerNumber number of Arion rufus individuals counted on the date of check1 0 24 A_rufus_count_check2 integerNumber number of Arion rufus individuals counted on the date of the check2 0 25 A_rufus_count_check3 integerNumber number of Arion rufus individuals counted on the date of check3 0 26 gastropod_traces_within_depot character(16) have gastropod traces (mucus, feces) been observed on the seed depot 0