Do empty Juniperus communis seeds defend filled seeds against predation by Apodemus sylvaticus

摘要: AbstractThe juniper Juniperus communis, a dominant plant in the high mountains of SE Spain, produces proportion empty seeds within well-developed cones. We tested hypothesis that production by reduces seed predation woodmouse Apodemus sylvaticus, thereby benefitting plant. performed laboratory and field experiments to determine i) discrimination ability between filled seeds, ii) response changes versus density clusters. In addition, we estimated, for six populations over three years, whether plants or showing higher suffered reduced predation. Experiments showed woodmice can eventually discriminate externally but most cases had bite identify reject ones. The probability was independent t...