Florian Hartig Theoretical Ecology & Ecological Data Science

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Employing plant functional groups to advance seed dispersal ecology and conservation

Clare Aslan, Noelle G. Beckman, Haldre S. Rogers, Judith Bronstein, Damaris Zurell, Florian Hartig, Katriona Shea, Liba Pejchar, Mike Neubert, John Poulsen, Janneke HilleRisLambers, Maria Miriti, Bette Loiselle, Edu Effiom, Jenny Zambrano, Geno Schupp, Gesine Pufal, Jeremy Johnson, James M. Bullock, Jedediah Brodie, Emilio Bruna, Robert Stephen Cantrell, Robin Decker, Evan Fricke, Katie Gurski, Alan Hastings, Oleg Kogan, Onja Razafindratsima, Manette Sandor, Sebastian Schreiber, Rebecca Snell, Christopher Strickland, Ying Zhou

AoB Plants, 11(2), plz006 (2019)
Cite this
@article{aslan2019employing,
  author = {Clare Aslan and Noelle G. Beckman and Haldre S. Rogers and Judith Bronstein and Damaris Zurell and Florian Hartig and Katriona Shea and Liba Pejchar and Mike Neubert and John Poulsen and Janneke HilleRisLambers and Maria Miriti and Bette Loiselle and Edu Effiom and Jenny Zambrano and Geno Schupp and Gesine Pufal and Jeremy Johnson and James M. Bullock and Jedediah Brodie and Emilio Bruna and Robert Stephen Cantrell and Robin Decker and Evan Fricke and Katie Gurski and Alan Hastings and Oleg Kogan and Onja Razafindratsima and Manette Sandor and Sebastian Schreiber and Rebecca Snell and Christopher Strickland and Ying Zhou},
  title = {Employing plant functional groups to advance seed dispersal ecology and conservation},
  journal = {AoB Plants},
  volume = {11},
  number = {2},
  pages = {plz006},
  year = {2019},
  doi = {10.1093/aobpla/plz006},
}

DOI: 10.1093/aobpla/plz006
Cited by 57 (Google Scholar) · 58 (OpenAlex), as of 07 September 2026

View article (DOI)

Abstract

Seed dispersal enables plants to reach hospitable germination sites and escape natural enemies. Understanding when and how much seed dispersal matters to plant fitness is critical for understanding plant population and community dynamics, but the complexity of factors that determine if a seed will be successfully dispersed and subsequently develop into a reproductive plant is daunting – quantifying all factors that may influence seed dispersal effectiveness for any potential seed-vector relationship would require an unrealistically large amount of time, materials and financial resources. On the other hand, being able to make dispersal predictions is critical for predicting whether single species and entire ecosystems will be resilient to global change. Building on current frameworks, we posit that seed dispersal ecology should adopt plant functional groups as analytical units to reduce this complexity to manageable levels: functional groups can be used to distinguish, for their constituent species, whether it matters if seeds are dispersed, into what context they are dispersed, and what vectors disperse them. To avoid overgeneralization, we propose that the utility of these functional groups may be assessed by generating predictions based on the groups and then testing those predictions against species-specific data, so that data collection and analysis can be guided by robust functional group definitions. Generalizing across similar species in this way could help us to better understand the population and community dynamics of plants and tackle the complexity of seed dispersal as well as its disruption.

What the paper shows and why it matters (AI-generated)

Characterising every individual seed-vector relationship in detail would take more time and money than dispersal ecology will ever have, which is the practical problem this perspective piece tries to solve. It proposes organising the field around plant functional groups instead — generalising across similar species without pretending they're identical — and testing that generalisation against species-specific data rather than assuming it holds. The framing has become a recurring reference point in later reviews of dispersal methods and disperser decline.