啮齿动物作用下退耕地山杏种子扩散与贮藏的季节变化

啮齿动物对植物种子的取食和扩散影响种子的时空分布，继而影响种子的萌发和幼苗建成，因而在森林更新中起着重要作用.在国有济源市愚公林场，选择退耕地生境，于春季、夏季、秋季分别释放人工标记的山杏种子，观察啮齿动物扩散与埋藏山杏种子的季节性差异.结果表明：1）退耕地中的啮齿动物主要包括大林姬鼠、社鼠、黑线姬鼠；2）山杏种子扩散速率在春季显著慢于夏季，夏季显著慢于秋季；3）种子搬运量受季节和种子状态交互作用影响，春季显著少于夏季，夏季显著少于秋季；4）不同季节种子平均搬运距离不同，秋季不同状态种子的搬运距离均大于春季和夏季；5）啮齿动物对山杏种子的贮藏点大小多为1粒种子，少量为2、3粒种子，且贮藏点大小与季节间存在显著的交互作用，春季单粒种子的贮藏点数量显著少于夏季和秋季，而夏季与秋季的贮藏点则倾向于多粒种子；6）在夏季和秋季各有5枚（共释放1800枚）被啮齿动物分散贮藏的山杏种子建成幼苗.

Seasonal variations of wild apricot seed dispersal and hoarding by rodents in rehabilitated land

Rodents feed with and disperse plant seeds, which may thereby affect the seed spatiotemporal distribution, germination, and seedling establishment, and eventually play an important role in the restoration of deforested area. Taking the State-owned Yugong Forest Farm in Jiyuan of Henan, China as study site, the tagged seeds of wild apricot (Prunus armeniaca) were artificially released in rehabilitated land in the spring, summer, and autumn 2008, aimed to investigate their dispersal and hoarding by rodents in different seasons. It was found that  Apodemus peninsulae, Niviventer confucianus, and Apodemus agrarius were the main rodent species acting on the seed dispersal and hoarding. The dispersal rate of the seeds was significantly lower in spring than in summer, and also, lower in summer than in autumn. The amount of removed seeds was affected by the interaction of season and seed status, being significantly lesser in spring than in summer, and lesser in summer than in autumn. The mean transportation distance differed with seasons, which was longer in autumn than in spring and summer. The cache size in majority caches was 1 seed, but in a few caches, each cache contained 2 or 3 seeds. The cache number was affected by the interaction of season and seed status, i.e., one seed cache was lesser in spring than in summer and autumn, while the caches containing 2 or 3 seeds were more in summer and autumn. Among the 1800 seeds released, there were five seeds hoarded in summer and autumn respectively established seedlings in the next year of the experiment.