不同空间尺度下的肉果植物扩散过程和机理

肉果植物扩散的生态学过程在最近得到生态学者们的广泛关注，其扩散过程包括果实搬运、果实消耗、种子雨、种子取食、种子库动态、萌发和幼苗定居等。许多过程涉及到果食性动物和肉果植物之间的互惠的协同进化关系。对最近15a关于肉果植物扩散的研究论文进行了综述，探讨在生境、微生境、景观和区域等常用的空间尺度上，肉果植物扩散和定居过程的格局与机理。

The processes and mechanisms of the dispersal of fleshy-fruited plants at diffe rent spatial scales

The processes associated with the dispersal of fleshy-fruited plants have been an important focus of ecological research during the last fifteen years. These p rocesses include fruit removal, fruit consumption, seed dispersal, seed predatio n, seed bank dynamics, seed germination and seedling establishment. Some of them interfere with the mutualistic interaction of frugivorous animals and fleshy-f ruited plants. Although in ecology, the importance of scale has long been recogn ized and multi-scaled analyses have been increasingly advocated, our knowledge of scaling of plant dispersal is still limited. The central theme of this review is the main processes associated with dispersal and regeneration of fleshy-fru ited plants at different spatial scales. About 80 publications from 1988 t o 2002 on dispersal of fleshy-fruited species were investigated for the spatial scale of these processes. The different scales commonly refer to microhabitat, h abitat, landscape, and region. However, the study of fleshy-fruited species at different scales was not fully balanced, larger scales study were scarce and mos t studies considered only one scale, paying no attention to the differences in s cales. Transport of seeds by dispersers is the key step in the sequence leading from di spersal to plant recruitment. However, other processes acting both before and af ter seed dispersal must also be considered, since they influence the ecological patterns of fleshy-fruited plant recruitment. Results of our review showed some tendency in scaling of the main processes of f leshy-fruited plant dispersal and regeneration. Seed dispersal, seed predation and fruit removal by vertebrate animals are strongly determined at the habitat l evel, and several studies report negative results for contrasts between microhab itat. Germination and seedling establishment, on the other hand, appear to be ma inly influenced by differences between microhabitat. The same might be true for seed bank dynamics, although studies on larger scales are scarce. Distribution p atterns of fleshy-fruited plants were observed at larger spatial scales. Disper sal of plants in a bio-geographical sense emerges at the landscape, whereas eff e cts of climate and geographical substrate may be most prominent within regional and zonal comparisons. The main factors determining fleshy-fruited plant processes have been intensive ly studied in recent decades. Unfortunately, negative results are found in many publications, which makes it difficult to judge the importance of scale to a par ticular process. Another problem is that different scales have not been equally well studied. No doubt, future research should solve these problems, enabling us to answer more fully the supposed scale dependency of fleshy-fruited plant pro cesses patterns.proce