{"id":3115,"date":"2015-10-12T12:54:05","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T10:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/?p=3115"},"modified":"2020-09-23T13:07:28","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T11:07:28","slug":"impact-of-invasive-alien-birds-on-seed-germination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/impact-of-invasive-alien-birds-on-seed-germination\/","title":{"rendered":"Impact of invasive alien birds on seed germination"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent study by C\u00b7I\u00b7B student, Vuyisile Thabethe and colleagues assessed how the germination of invasive seeds are influenced after being eaten by indigenous, Knysna (Tauraco corythaix<\/em>) and purple-crested (Gallirex porphyreolophus<\/em>) turacos, and invasive, rose-ringed parakeets (Psittacula krameri<\/em>). To test this, fruits of four invasive alien plants: bugweed (Solanum mauritianum<\/em>), camphor (Cinnamomum camphora<\/em>), guava (Psidium guajava<\/em>),<\/em> and mulberry (Morus alba<\/em>), were fed to the rose-ringed parakeets and turacos. The seeds from each bird\u2019s excreta or regurgitation were removed and planted separate trays.<\/p>\n

\"The
The invasive rose-ringed parakeet (Psittacula krameri) (Photo credit: Niraj V. Mistry)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vuyisile found that seeds passing through the gut passage of the two indigenous birds\u2019 had higher rates of germination. In contrast, seeds passing through the digestive tract of rose-ringed parakeets had lower rates of germination. The results suggest that turacos are seed dispersers of these fleshy-fruited invasive alien plants, while rose-ringed parakeets are seed predators. Damage to the seeds can be caused by the parakeets crushing them while feeding and\/or destruction of viable seeds in the digestive tract.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough parakeets are not promoting the spread of invasive alien plants, indigenous plants may suffer similar fates and have reduced germination rates,<\/em>\u201d says Vuyisile Thabethe, lead author of the study. She adds, \u201cThis is perhaps one of the first studies highlighting the <\/em>destructive behaviour of rose-ringed parakeets on indigenous fruiting plants in South Africa<\/em>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the paper<\/h4>\n

Thabethe, V., Hart, L., Wilson, A-L., & Downs, C.T. 2015. Ingestion by an invasive parakeet species reduces germination success of invasive alien plants relative to ingestion by indigenous turaco species in South Africa. Biological Invasions 10.1007\/s10530-105-0932-1<\/a><\/p>\n

For more information, contact Vuyisile Thabethe at thabethevuyisile@yahoo.com<\/a> or Prof. C T Downs at downs@ukzn.ac.za<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The
The indigenous Kynsna turaco (Tauraco corythaix) (Photo credit: Sam Woods)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The indigenous purple-crested turaco (Gallirex porphyreolophus) (Photo credit: John del Rio)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent study by C\u00b7I\u00b7B student, Vuyisile Thabethe and colleagues assessed how the germination of invasive seeds are influenced after being eaten by indigenous, Knysna (Tauraco corythaix) and purple-crested (Gallirex porphyreolophus) turacos, and invasive, rose-ringed parakeets (Psittacula krameri).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":3120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[73242,3256],"tags":[73379,73380,73383,73382,72921,73381],"class_list":["post-3115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2015-news","category-news","tag-avian-frugivore","tag-pulp-removal","tag-retention-time","tag-seed","tag-seed-germination","tag-seed-predation","entry","has-media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3119,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3115\/revisions\/3119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}