Climate warming increases insect‐driven seed removal of two elaiosome‐bearing invasive thistle species

• Published in: Ecology (Durham) Vol. 105; no. 2; pp. e4223 - n/a
• Main Authors: Drees, Trevor H., Shea, Katriona
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.02.2024
• Subjects: Animals; Ants; Carduus acanthoides; Carduus nutans; climate change; dispersal; elaiosome; Introduced Species; invasive species; myrmecochory; Plants; Seed Dispersal; seed removal; Seeds; Temperature; Carduus acanthoides; ants; Carduus nutans; myrmecochory; dispersal; seed removal; elaiosome; invasive species; climate change

Ants and other insects are often a source of localized secondary dispersal for wind‐dispersed plants and thus play an important ecological role in their spatial dynamics, but there is limited information on how climate change will affect such dispersal processes. Here, we use field experiments to in...