SEED PREDATORS, stone fruit PREDATION RATES AND THEIR EFFECTS ON THE REGENERATION DYNAMICS OF magnoliopsid genus welwitschii IN KAKAMEGA FOREST, KENYA

Abstract

Careful scrutiny of knowledge collected throughout the forest inventory within the Nineteen Sixties on the brush reveals absence of seedlings of magnoliopsid genus welwitschii. This study wanted to see why magnoliopsid genus welwitschii doesn't regenerate within the forest and to look at the roles of predispersal and post-dispersal drupes and seed predation intensities as precipitators of lack of regeneration. Seed/drupe predation experiments were conducted at 2 levels. the primary level examined pre-dispersal seed and stone fruit predation.  Rectangular seed/drupe traps created out of meshed material with a grouping surface of zero.25 m2were willy-nilly placed to hide all the four quadrants underneath the cover of 5 randomly chosen magnoliopsid genus mature trees. The second level examined post-dispersal predation by sampling seeds and drupes underneath the crown of every of the willy-nilly chosen mature trees by dividing it into four quadrants. at intervals every quadrant, 5 1m2 quadrats were established on the bottom in a very random fashion to hide a minimum of 10-30 per cent of the full cover space. Frequency- and distance- dependent seed/drupe predation were examined exploitation thirty (l m2) quadrats with equal numbers of seeds and stone fruits and inspected each twelve hours for one month to see variations in seed and drupe predation rates. Effects of density and distance were tested by fitting fifty m long transects with the bottom of the mature trees because the start line. 2 transects per tree in two totally different directions, north/south and east/west at 5 mature trees were established. on every transect, eleven sampling stations were established at a 5 metre interval. A saddlery grid was established underneath the crown of 5 mature magnoliopsid genus adults and aloof from the crown to see variations in little vertebrate predator density. Results of predispersal drupes predation was derived from the pooled sample of all drupes collected. a complete of 1386 drupes were collected. Of these, 3 (3) per cent had insect holes. a more in-depth examination of size and weight of the drupes that were attacked unconcealed that smaller drupes (70%) were attacked quite larger ones (30%). Overall, there have been additional little drupes falling on the forest floor (89 per cent) than giant ones (11 per cent). stone fruit and seed density was a decreasing operate of distance from the parent trees ad distance from the parent trees had a big impact on drupes and seed predation rates. irrespective of density, seeds were removed at higher rates underneath the parent crowns, whereas drupes were unnoticed by the predators. One species of rodents, 

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Posted March 9, 2019 06:10