Publication Date
7-17-2024
Description
Commensal relationships between wild plants and their dispersers play a key ecological and evolutionary role in community structure and function. While non-human dispersers are often considered critical to plant recruitment, human dispersers have received much less attention, especially when it comes to non-domesticated plants. Australia, as a continent historically characterized by economies reliant on non-domesticated plants, is thus a key system for exploring the ecological role of people as seed dispersers in the absence of agriculture. Here, we utilize a controlled observation research design, employing ecological surveys and ethnographic observations to examine how seed dispersal and landscape burning by Martu Aboriginal people affects the distribution of three preferred plants and one (edible, but non-preferred) control species. Using an information theoretic approach, we find that the three preferred plants show evidence of human dispersal, with the strongest evidence supporting anthropogenic dispersal for the wild bush tomato, Solanum diversiflorum.
Journal
Nature Communications
Volume
15
First Page
Article number: 6019
Department
Biology
Second Department
Biology
Link to Published Version
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-50300-5?utm_campaign=related_content&utm_source=HEALTH&utm_medium=communities
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50300-5
Recommended Citation
Bird, R.B., D.W. Bird, C.T. Martine, C. McGuire, L. Greenwood, D. Taylor, T.M. Williams, P.M. Veth. 2024. Seed dispersal by Martu peoples promotes the distribution of native plants in arid Australia. Nature Communications 15: 6019. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50300-5
Included in
Biodiversity Commons, Biological and Physical Anthropology Commons, Botany Commons, Desert Ecology Commons, Food Security Commons, Food Studies Commons, Integrative Biology Commons, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons