Dm. Wilkinson, PLANT COLONIZATION - ARE WIND DISPERSED SEEDS REALLY DISPERSED BY BIRDS AT LARGER SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL SCALES, Journal of biogeography, 24(1), 1997, pp. 61-65
It is suggested that many plant species often thought of as wind dispe
rsed may in fact be largely dispersed by animals, mostly birds, at lar
ger spatial and temporal scales. This possibility is illustrated by us
ing data bn Holocene tree migrations in Europe. It is suggested that e
xploratory movements, often by young birds, may play an important role
in such dispersal rather than the classic return migrations of birds.
In the case of European trees there could have been active selection
for rapid migrations occurring even in the glacial refugia sites in th
e mountains of southern Europe. Plant migration rates, and hence the a
bility to deal with climatic change, may have been lower before the ev
olution of a diverse avifanua. It is suggested that for many 'wind dis
persed' seeds the wind dispersal mechanism is adapted to local dispers
al (over distances of a few canopy diameters) and larger scale dispers
ion is due to birds.