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Volume 8
Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography
ISSN: 2157-7625
Ecology 2018
March 19-20, 2018
March 19-20, 2018 | Berlin, Germany
World Conference on Ecology
Are nurse protege interactions associated with seed dispersal or phylogeny in thorn scrub?
Enrique Jurado, Ignacio Tamez, Renata Valdes, Marisela Pando
and
Eduardo Estrada
Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Mexico
I
n nurse protege interactions, seedlings benefit from the micro-environment created by adult plants without effect for the
latter. They are more common in harsh environments such as those found in arid and semi-arid ecosystem. In here we study
Zanthoxylum fagara (L) Sarg. (Rutaceae), a vertebrate dispersed shrub that occurs from the United States (Texas and Florida) to
Paraguay and the Caribbean. InMexico, it is a common genus in semiarid environments. Seedlings are conspicuous and often seen
under the canopy of shrubs and trees. Species with similar fruits (and perhaps dispersal agents) have been found to grow together.
Because plants that grow together compete for resources, it has been suggested that they might be phylogenetically distant, as close
relatives would have similar requirements and hence be stronger competitors. In this study we explored whether seedlings from
this species (i) occur more often under the canopy of shrubs and trees (nurse plants) than in open spaces, and whether these nurse
plants were more often (ii) vertebrate dispersed and (iii) phylogenetically distant. We measured the distribution of seedlings of
Zanthoxylum fagara in Tamaulipan thorn scrub, under shrubs and trees and in cleared places. In a total of 50 plots, 308 seedlings
were found under canopies, and 19 under direct sunlight. The number of seedlings found under the canopy of two species with
unassisted seeds: Vachellia farnesiana and Havardia pallens and three species with vertebrate dispersed seeds: Cordia boissieri,
Prosopis laevigata, and Zanthoxylum fagara was similar. Hence, Zanthoxylum fagara seedlings do occur more often under the
canopy of nurse plants than under direct sunlight, but without relation to their dispersal syndrome or their phylogeny.
Recent Publications
1. Pompa García M, Sigala Rodriguez J A, Jurado E and Flores J (2017)
Tissue carbon concentration of 175 Mexican forest species. iForest
10:754-758.
2. Joel Flores, Reyes M Perez Sanchez and Enrique Jurado (2017)
The combined effect of water stress and elevated temperatures on
seed germination of Chihuahuan Desert species. Journal of Arid
Environments 146:95-98.
3. Martinez Adriano C A, Jurado E, Flores J, Gonzalez Rodriguez H and
Cuellar Rodriguez G (2016) Flower, fruit phenology and flower traits
in Cordia boissieri (Boraginaceae) from northeastern Mexico. PeerJ
4:e2033.
4. Cuellar Rodriguez G, Jurado E and Flores J (2016) Beetle diversity in fragmented
thornscrub and isolated trees. Brazilian Journal of Biology, 77(1).
5. Mariana Contreras Quiroz, Marisela Pando Moreno, Enrique Jurado, Joel
Flores, Karen Bauk and Diego E Gurvich (2016) Is seed hydrationmemory dependent on climate? Testing this hypothesis
with Mexican and Argentinian cacti species. Journal of Arid Environments 130:94-97.
Biography
Enrique Jurado is a Mexican National Research Scientist with recognition of level 3. He is a Member of the National Academy Sciences and has a PhD since 1991
from Macquarie University in Australia. He has published over 100 papers on Ecology, mainly of plants and germination. His research has been cited over 2000
times. He has supervised many undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Nuevo Leon (the research institution where he works) and also as an
Invited Professor elsewhere.
enrique_jurado@hotmail.comEnrique Jurado et al., J Ecosyst Ecography 2018, Volume 8
DOI: 10.4172/2157-7625-C1-033
Figure 1:
Seedling of
Z. fagara
growing under
the canopy of shrubs, possible causes of the
benefit of growing under nurse plants and
number of seedlings of
Z. fagara
found under
direct sunlight and shade