Anomalous, extreme weather disrupts obligate seed dispersal mutualism: Snow in a subtropical forest ecosystem

Journal article

Ongoing global climate change is predicted to increase the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events, impacting population dynamics and community structure. There is, however, a critical lack of case studies considering how climatic perturbations affect biotic interactions. Here, we document how an obligate seed dispersal mutualism was disrupted by a temporally anomalous and meteorologically extreme interlude of unseasonably frigid weather, with accompanying snowstorms, in subtropical...

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Authors: Zhou, Y; Newman, C; Chen, J; Xie, Z; Macdonald, D

• Journal: Global Change Biology
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 9
• Pages: 2867-2877
• Publication date: 2013-09-01
• DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12245
• EISSN: 1365-2486
• ISSN: 1354-1013
• Language: English
• Keywords: Climate variability; Extreme weather event; Snowstorm; Ecological interaction; Seed dispersal; Mutualism; Climate change; Resilience; Hovenia dulcis