Evaluating the potential for weed seed dispersal based on waterfowl consumption and seed viability

BACKGROUND Migratory waterfowl have often been implicated in the movement of troublesome agronomic and wetland weed species. However, minimal research has been conducted to investigate the dispersal of agronomically important weed species by waterfowl. The two objectives for this project were to det...

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Published inPest management science Vol. 73; no. 12; pp. 2592 - 2603
Main Authors Farmer, Jaime A, Webb, Elisabeth B, Pierce, Robert A, Bradley, Kevin W
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.12.2017
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects
Agronomy
Amaranth
Animals
Anseriformes - physiology
Aquatic birds
Digestive system
Dispersal
Dispersion
endozoochory
Feeding Behavior
Palmer amaranth
Seed Dispersal
seed distribution
Seeds
Seeds - physiology
Species
Viability
Waterfowl
waterhemp
Weeds
Wetlands
waterfowl
waterhemp
Palmer amaranth
endozoochory
seed distribution
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Summary:BACKGROUND Migratory waterfowl have often been implicated in the movement of troublesome agronomic and wetland weed species. However, minimal research has been conducted to investigate the dispersal of agronomically important weed species by waterfowl. The two objectives for this project were to determine what weed species are being consumed by ducks and snow geese, and to determine the recovery rate and viability of 13 agronomic weed species after passage through a duck's digestive system. RESULTS Seed recovered from digestive tracts of 526 ducks and geese harvested during a 2‐year field study had 35 020 plants emerge. A greater variety of plant species emerged from ducks each year (47 and 31 species) compared to geese (11 and 3 species). Viable seed from 11 of 13 weed species fed to ducks in a controlled feeding study were recovered. Viability rate and gut retention times indicated potential dispersal up to 2900 km from the source depending on seed characteristics and variability in waterfowl dispersal distances. CONCLUSIONS Study results confirm that waterfowl are consuming seeds from a variety of agronomically important weed species, including Palmer amaranth, which can remain viable after passage through digestive tracts and have potential to be dispersed over long distances by waterfowl. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry
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ISSN:1526-498X
1526-4998
DOI:10.1002/ps.4710