Predation and dispersal of Quercus liaotungensis Koidz.acorns by animals in Dongling Mountain,Northern China
东灵山地区动物对辽东栎坚果的捕食和传播Ⅰ.排除啮齿目动物对坚果丢失的影响

Acorn predation and dispersal by vertebrate was regarded as a main factor influencing the fate of Quercus liaotungensis Koidz.acorns and hence the recruitment and establishment of seedling in the field.The loss of Q.liaotungensis acorns was experimentally examined in a broad leaved deciduous forest in Dongling Mountain,Northern China.Both before trapping and after trapping rodents,the loss rates of acorns are very great in the beginning of acorn placement,with a inflexion in the loss curve before rodent removal and several inflexions after rodent removal.By the end of this experiment,almost all acorns disappeared.The loss of acorn was significantly greater before rodents removal than after rodents removal.However microhabitats and acorn size had no effect on acorn loss.The 2 way interactions between any two factors and the 3 way interaction had no effects on acorn loss.For the consumption of acorns in situ, the differences both between before rodents removal and after rodents removal,and between big and small acorns are significant.The effect of other factors and interactions are similar to that for acorn loss.Three rodent species were trapped by acorn baited snap traps randomly set up in the ground of the forest in september.These results suggested that small rodents were responsible in some degree for the acorns loss and they (together with other and birds)have the great capability to transport acorns to their nests or scatterhoarded in others places.