Posted 6/8/2011 12:06 AM by Frank Krell |
CommentsMany plants rely on animals to disperse their seeds. Animals
feed on their fruit and drop the seeds with their feces. Then dung
beetles get involved. Particularly in tropical ecosystems, dung
beetles are important secondary seed dispersers. Roller beetles
relocate them on the horizontally by rolling dung balls, containing
seeds, away from the place where the feces was deposited. Tunneler
beetles bring them underground. In West Africa, seed dispersal by
dung beetles has never been studies. Together with Dr. Britta Kunz, now at the Biodiversity and Climate Research Center in
Frankfurt/Main, Germany, Frank Krell published a study on the role
of dung beetles for secondary seed dispersal in the Parc
National de la Comoé, Ivory Coast. 4149 dung beetles were
collected which are deposited partly here at the Denver Museum of
Nature & Science and partly at the Natural
History Museum, London. The first page of the study with a
summary of the results is here. For a pdf or the full study, please email
Frank
Krell.
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