Journal ArticleDOI
Seed-eaters versus seed size, number, toxicity and dispersal
TLDR
In this discussion of the escape of the offspring of a large sessile organism from predators and parasites, Leguminosae (the bean family) and the bruchid beetles that attack their seeds are used as an empirical example.Abstract:
\"Many legumes contain poisonous principles, particularly alkaloids and glucosides, and we should expect Bruchids to be affected by some of these.\" With this statement, Bridwell (l918) anticipated the subject of this discussion: what traits of seeds may be the result of selective pressure by insects and other seed-eaters? In this discussion of the escape of the offspring of a large sessile organism from predators and parasites, Leguminosae (the bean family) and the bruchid beetles that attack their seeds are used as an empirical example. In a subsequent paper (Janzen, 1968b), a model of seed dispersal is developed as background for discussion of the relevance of seed dispersal and mortality to the density and presence of a species of plant in a community. I intend the data presented here to support the arguments advanced by Stebbins (1967) and Harper ( 1967) against theread more
Citations
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The maintenance of species-richness in plant communities: the importance of the regeneration niche
TL;DR: It is shown that when an individual dies, it may or may not be replaced by an individual of the same species, which is all‐important to the argument presented.
Journal ArticleDOI
Life-history tactics: a review of the ideas.
TL;DR: This review organizes ideas on the evolution of life histories into more comprehensive theory that makes more readily falsifiable predictions, and examination of different definitions of fitness.
Journal ArticleDOI
Seasonal changes in oak leaf tannins and nutrients as a cause of spring feeding by winter moth caterpillars
Paul Feeny,Paul Feeny +1 more
TL;DR: The content of oak leaf tannins, which inhibit the growth of winter moth larvae, increases during the summer and may render leaves less suitable for insect growth by further reducing the availability of nitrogen and perhaps also by influencing leaf palatability.
Journal ArticleDOI
Seed Predation by Animals
TL;DR: It is clear that the pattern of seed predation is highly structured and that it co evolved at, the chemical, spatial, and temporal level and the processes and patterns are ideal candidates for ecological and evolu tionary analyses.
Journal ArticleDOI
Flower and Fruit Abortion: Proximate Causes and Ultimate Functions
TL;DR: The growing realization that the number of flowers and fruits and the way they are clustered in time and space influence pollinator attraction is leading to efforts to study the role of demographic studies in this process.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Community Structure, Population Control, and Competition
TL;DR: Populations of producers, carnivores, and decomposers are limited by their respective resources in the classical density-dependent fashion and interspecific competition must necessarily exist among the members of each of these three trophic levels.
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Natural Selection, the Costs of Reproduction, and a Refinement of Lack's Principle
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The Raison d'Être of Secondary Plant Substances: These odd chemicals arose as a means of protecting plants from insects and now guide insects to food
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A general theory of clutch size.
TL;DR: This paper is an attempt to show that this and other existing hypotheses when taken singly are inadequate in some respect to account for all the data, that each holds for some particular set of con- ditions, and that each is but a part of the complete explanation.