关键词: 山杏, 辽东栎, 种子, 鼠类, 食物贮藏行为

Abstract: In Donglingshan mountain (40°00′N , 115°30′E) , a mountainous area of Mentougou District of Beijing , China , we chose 30 seed releasing plots in a shrub community and released seeds of wild apricot ( Prunus armeniaca) and Liaodong oak(Quercus liaotungensis) , labeled with small pieces of coded tin-tags to investigate and compare the seeds of these two species eaten on the spot and survival dynamics and the distance , location and status of seed-transported. Furthermore , we identified rodent species by using comparison of gnawing marks on seeds of wild apricot made by different rodents. On 10th October 2002 , we released seeds of wild apricot and Liaodong oak , with an interval of 1 m between releasing places of them , on the ground surface in each plot , and checked the seed fate daily for 16 days. The recording items included number of seed-remained , transporting distance and micro-habitat and status of the seeds after transport. The micro-habitats were classified into four categories (Under shrub , US; Shrub edge , SE; Grass , G and Bare ground , BG). The statuses of those seeds being removed were defined as four types (Buried , B ; Surface , S; Eaten , E and Missing , M). SPSS for Windows (Version 10.0) was used in the analysis of data : survival analysis was used to analyze the remaining dynamics of the experimental seeds in the releasing place ; Kolmogorove-Smirnov test was used to determine the distribution of all data ; Mann-Whitney U was used to test the significant level of transporting distance between the removed seeds of wild apricot and Liaodong oak ; One-way ANOVA was used once the distribution pattern of data were normal. Chi-square test was used to determine if the two kinds of transported seed distributed randomly within four categories of microhabitats. The main results of this study are as follows : 1) Apodemus peninsulae and Sciurotamias davidianus are key rodent species acting on seeds of wild apricot and Liaodong oak in the study area ; 2) in releasing plots , the intensity of seeds of Liaodong oak were consumed is higher (54.38 %) than that of wild apricot (0.17 %) , the median survival time of released seed of wild apricot and Liaodong oak are 7.89 days and 7.73 days , respectively ; 3) the mean transport distance of seeds of wild apricot is longer than that of Liaodong oak ; 4) after transported by rodents , more seeds of wild apricot than seeds of Liaodong oak were buried within the micro2habitats of US and SE and 5) the cache size of seeds of wild apricot is 1 - 3 seeds with the majority of one seed , while the all caches of Liaodong oak has one seed only.

Key words: Wild apricot, Liaodong oak, Seeds, Rodents, Food2hoarding behavior