FRUGIVORY AND THE FATE OF DISPERSED AND NON-DISPERSED SEEDS OF 6 AFRICAN TREE SPECIES

The relationship between seedling recruitment (under and away from par ent trees) and the behaviour of seed dispersers and predators, was exp lored in a three-year study in Kibale National Park, Uganda. On the ba sis of 1261 hours of observation, the foraging activity of the diurnal frugivores which fed on fruit from six tree species was quantified. T he fate of dispersed and non-dispersed seeds and seedlings was examine d experimentally. The findings suggest that a trade-off exists between factors that promote seedling growth in areas with high seedling dens ity and factors that promote dispersal by frugivores. For example, dis persal of Mimusops bagshawei increases both seed and seedling survival ; seeds placed away from adult conspecifics had a 8% lower probability of disappearing than seeds placed under adults and seedlings away fro m adults had a 30% greater probability of surviving than seedlings gro wn under adults. In contrast, for Uvariopsis congensis, dispersed seed s had a 56% greater probability of disappearing than seeds directly un der a parent tree, while the survival of dispersed and non-dispersed s eedlings was similar. Non-dispersed seed and seedling disappearance we re correlated with the percentage of the Fruit crop removed from focal trees, suggesting that the ability to survive under an adult maybe re lated to other aspects of the tree's life history.