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Dipersal
dispersnotes.html
Dipersal Notes
Terminology:
androchorous: seed dispersed by the agency of humans; synonymous terms:
anthropochorous; brotochorous
anemochorous: seed dispersed by the agency of wind
barachorous: seed dispersed by its own weight; synonymous term:
clitochorous
bolochorous: seed dispersed by the agency of propulsive mechanisms
endozoochorous: seed dispersed by the agency of animals; synonymous terms:
synzoochorous; zoochorous
entomochoric: seed dispersed by the agency of insects
hydrochoric: seed dispersed by the agency of water
myrmecochorous: seed dispersed by the agency of ants
Seed Dispersal Patterns & Mechanisms
General relationships between seed density and distance from source: Invasion
of a habitat by colonizing plant (weed) has similarities to the spread of
pathogenic infection in a crop
-Crop infection: logarithm of infection density to the logarithm of distance
from source
-if the slope is that of the inverse square law, or steeper, a population
will spread into a colonizable territory as an advancing front: "horizon
of infection"; the steeper the slope the more sharply defined is the
infection front
-dispersal curves with slopes less than than that of the inverse square
law will lead to a spread-out pattern of isolated colonists, which may subsequently
act as new foci for new infections
