Human Mediated Dispersal Of Seeds Over Long Distances

Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry
Also Included In: Water - Air Quality / Agriculture
Article Date: 02 Oct 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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It is often suggested that dispersal of seeds by humans is responsible for invasions and the spread of plants around the world.

This remains conjecture, because human-mediated dispersal has never been quantified. We devised an experiment to discover how far wild Brassica seeds might be dispersed by attachment to hikers' boots. We asked colleagues to walk over seeds, which we counted after a range of distances. We found that while wind dispersal takes seeds a few metres, adhesion to boots dispersed seeds over five kilometres.

This suggests humans may be more important than natural agents for the dispersal of plants.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Proceedings B is the Royal Society's flagship biological research journal, dedicated to the rapid publication and broad dissemination of high-quality research papers, reviews and comment and reply papers. The scope of journal is diverse and is especially strong in organismal biology.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences