A Preliminary Study On The Effects Of Ant Nest Characteristics And Ant Behavior On Seed Dispersal And Germination Of Corydalis Giraldii

Ant dispersing(Myrmecochory)is a method of plant seed dispersal,which is widely distributed in various ecosystems in nature.During this process,plant seeds are spread,and ants get food(attached to elaiosome on the seeds),and both sides can be fit improve.Plant seeds often go through multiple stages from being transported by ants to the final successful germination,such as ant handling,treatment in ant nest,seed re-distribution or germination at a suitable place,etc.Previous studies have paid more attention to the ant handling stage,while focusing on the post-distribution stage Less,especially the effects of ant nest characteristics and ant dispersing behavior on seed fate and seed germination.In this study,the Corydalis giraldii Fedde was used as the research object.The effects of different seed additions on the transportation of the Corydalis giraldii seeds were compared.The effects of the treatment of seeds on the germination of the ants in the ant's nest were also studied.The main results are as follows:1.In total,221 ants were captured in a 10 m×10 m Corydalis giraldii habitat.The four types of ants are seed carriers,namely,Paratrechina sp.,pristomyrmex pungens,Myrmica rugosa,Camponotus sp.,Which account for 31.67%,13.57%,15.84%,and 9.95%of the total number of ants,respectively.2.The addition of seeds of different plants can affect the ants 'foraging behavior and reduce the ants' handling of Corydalis giraldii seeds.Adding two kinds of seeds is more significant than single-seeds when carrying s Corydalis giraldii seeds.Ants prefer to carry them,for the seeds with higher elaisome content,the size of the seeds carried by the ants is related to the body size.3.The nest form and internal structure change between different ant species.The nests of Paratrechina sp.are flat-type nest.The nest has only one or two layers.The nests are distributed on a horizontal plane,while pristomyrmex pungens,Myrmica rugosa,Camponotus sp.are three-dimensional nests.The overall trend is vertically downward,and the space is more complicated.Paratrechina sp.carried the largest number of seeds,and the largest number of seeds were thrown outside the nest.The amount of seeds thrown was 78.20%of the number of seeds transported,followed by the Camponotus sp.,The number of seeds thrown was 37.77%of the total.The proportion is the lowest,and the throwing-out ratio of the pristomyrmex pungens,Myrmica rugosa,is 84.61%and 54.00%,respectively.In the ant's nest,cells with a depth of 3-10 cm were found to have Corydalis giraldii seeds.4.In the seed germination experiment,the germination rate of seeds thrown out of the nest by ants was 50.00%,the germination rate of seeds with manual removal of elaiosome was 37.20%,and the germination rate of seeds of fresh mature plants was 19.60%.The germination rate of seeds with artificial removal of elaiosome was significantly higher than that of seeds without elaiosome(P>0.05).In the process of ant sowing,ants feeding on oil bodies helped seed germination.There is a small amount of seed germination at a depth of 3 cm,and no seed germination at 6 cm and 9 cm,indicating that the depth of the seed has an effect on seed germination.The deeper the seed germination rate,the lower.The germination rate of seeds around the ant nest is higher than that of the soil away from the ant nest,and the nitrogen,phosphorus and water content in the soil near the ant nest are significantly higher than the soil of the non-ant nest,indicating that ant nesting can increase the nutrient content of the soil and help seed germination in myrmecochory plants.These results indicate that the same myrmecochory plant is often carried by multiple ants.Different ant nest shapes will affect the seed bank dynamics of ant-dispersal plants,and ant handling behavior will affect the seed germination of ant-dispersal plants.The research results can provide basic data for studying the ant-seed mutually beneficial symbiosis relationship and its influencing factors,and also provide a reference for deeper study of the spatial distribution pattern of ant-dispersal plant populations and their population diffusion.