Plant colonization across the Galápagos Islands: success of the sea dispersal syndrome

• DOI: 10.1111/boj.12142
• Publication Date: 2014-02-12T14:29:32Z
• Authors: Pablo Vargas; Manuel Nogales; Patricia Jaramillo; Jens M. Olesen; Anna Traveset; Ruben Heleno
• Keywords: Archipelago; Seed dispersal syndrome; Diaspore (botany)

A new approach for investigating evidence the capacity of plant colonization between islands and success morphological traits associated with seed dispersal is presented. As result establishment, oceanic archipelagos provide an ideal spatio-temporal system in which to analyse related current distributions species across islands. The Galápagos archipelago comprises 12 > 10 km2 that harbour 403 native angiosperms, 313 occupy lowland habitats are present on all We inferred minimum number events within (289 species) more than one island (floristic analysis). distribution (number islands) was slightly left-skewed, 58% being six syndromes (i.e. trait sets diaspores dispersal) favourable inter-island (medium-distance dispersal, MDD) also analysed (syndrome In particular, 289 were classified into four groups (syndromes): sea (thalassochory), wind (anemochory), animal interior (endozoochory) or exterior (epizoochory). Most (N = 174, 55.6%), however, displayed no MDD (unspecialized diaspores). Analyses syndrome revealed that: (1) did not have broader those unspecialized diaspores; (2) most broadly distributed; (3) a net loss dispersability diaspore (from non-endemic natives endemic supported whole flora by our analyses. summary, analyses showed sea-drifting significantly Islands.