Effects of seed morphology and orientation on secondary seed dispersal by wind

Abstract Understanding how diaspore (hereafter ‘seed’) morphology and orientation affect secondary seed dispersal by wind is important to link seed dispersal and post-dispersal processes, such as seed lodging, predation and germination. This study aims to describe the effects of seed morphology and orientation on secondary seed dispersal by wind via mechanistic modelling. We extend the mechanistic model of Schurr et al. (2005) in order to describe how secondary seed dispersal by wind is affected by wind conditions, ground surface, seed morphology and orientation. The model simulates the initial landing orientations, dispersal distances and stopping orientations of individual seeds. To parameterize the model, we measured orientation-specific vertical seed projection and seed lift-off velocity (the wind speed at which a seed starts moving on the ground) of the asymmetric seeds of heterocarpous Zygophyllum xanthoxylon, and determined orientation-specific model parameters that depend on properties of seeds and/or the environment. To validate the model, we conducted wind channel experiments in which we released seeds of Z. xanthoxylon onto a sand-coated tar paper, and recorded the initial landing orientations, dispersal distances and stopping orientations of the seeds. The extended model could precisely predict secondary dispersal distance, and explain up to 99% of variation in the observed proportions of seeds which stopped in various orientations. The model predicts that secondary dispersal distance increases with wind speed and decreases with aerodynamic roughness length, and that there might be a positive correlation between dispersal distance and germination success.