Seeds and seedlings of oaks suffer from mammals and mollusks close to phylogenetically isolated, old adults.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Mammals and mollusks (MaM) are abundant herbivores of tree seeds and seedlings, but how the trees and their environment affect MaM herbivory has been little studied. MaM tend to move much larger distances during feeding stage than the more frequently studied insect herbivores. We hypothesize that MaM (i) select and stay within the patches that promise to be relatively the richest in seeds and seedlings, i.e. patches around adult trees that are old and within a distantly related, less productive neighborhood; and (ii) try to remain sheltered from predators while foraging, i.e. mammals remain close to adult trees or to cover by herbs while foraging, and might force their mollusk prey to show the opposite distribution. METHODS We exposed oak acorns and seedlings in a temperate forest along transects from adult conspecifics in different neighborhoods. We followed acorn removal and leaf herbivory. We used exclusion experiments to separate acorn removal by ungulates vs. rodents and leaf-herbivory by insects vs. mollusks. We measured the size of the closest conspecific adult tree, its phylogenetic isolation from the neighborhood and the herbaceous ground cover. KEY RESULTS Consistent with our hypothesis, rodents removed seeds around adult trees surrounded by phylogenetically distant trees and by a dense herb cover. Mollusks grazed seedlings surrounding large conspecific adults and where herb cover is scarce. Contrary to hypothesis, impact of MaM did not change from 1 to 5m distance from adult trees. CONCLUSIONS We suggest that foraging decisions of MaM repulse seedlings from old adults, and mediate the negative effects of herbaceous vegetation on tree recruitment. Also, increase in mammalian seed predation might prevent trees from establishing in the niches of phylogenetically distantly related species, contrary to what is known from insect enemies.