Abstract. Plantations of Eucalyptus globulus Labill. have been expanding rapidly worldwide. The species is considered invasive in several regions. While in the native range, post-dispersal seed predation is known to severely limit eucalypt recruitment, there is no experimental evidence of seed predation in the introduced range. We hypothesised that E. globulus seeds largely escape predation in Portugal, which may explain its prolific recruitment in some locations. We tested this hypothesis in central Portugal by exposing E. globulus seeds to the local fauna. For comparison purposes, we also used seeds from locally common species: Acacia dealbata Link (alien, larger, elaiosome-bearing seeds) and Cistus salviifolius L. (native, similarly sized seeds). We installed 30 feeding stations across three study sites, each one dominated by one study species. Each feeding station featured four feeders with different animal-access treatments: invertebrates; vertebrates; full access; no access (control). We placed five seeds of each plant species every day in each feeder and registered the number of seeds missing, eaten and elaiosome detached over 9 summer days. Eucalyptus globulus seeds were highly attractive to fauna in the three sites. Nearly half of E. globulus seeds were predated or removed, thus contradicting our hypothesis. Surprisingly, E. globulus and A. dealbata seeds were used by animals in similar proportions and C. salviifolius seeds were the least preferred. Vertebrates were the predominant seed predators and preferred the alien seeds. Invertebrates used all seed species in similar proportions. We found spatial variation regarding the predominant type of seed predators and the levels of seed predation according to the following patterns: predominance of vertebrates; predominance of invertebrates; negligible seed predator activity. Locations with negligible seed predation were abundant and scattered across the study area. Such spatial variation may help to explain the heterogeneous recruitment patterns of E. globulus seedlings found in previous studies.

中文翻译：

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<i>Eucalyptus globulus</i> 的后分散种子是否早于引入范围内？来自葡萄牙实验的证据

摘要。Eucalyptus globulus Labill 的种植园。已在全球迅速扩张。该物种在几个地区被认为是入侵物种。虽然在本地范围内，已知散播后的种子捕食会严重限制桉树的补充，但在引入的范围内没有种子捕食的实验证据。我们假设 E. globulus 种子在葡萄牙很大程度上逃脱了捕食，这可能解释了它在某些地方的大量招募。我们在葡萄牙中部通过将 E. globulus 种子暴露于当地动物群来测试这一假设。出于比较的目的，我们还使用了当地常见物种的种子：Acacia dealbata Link（外来的、较大的、带有 elaiosome 的种子）和 Cistus salviifolius L.（本地的、大小相似的种子）。我们在三个研究地点安装了 30 个饲养站，每个站点由一种研究物种主导。每个喂食站都有四个喂食器，具有不同的动物接触处理：无脊椎动物；脊椎动物；完全访问；没有访问（控制）。我们每天在每个饲养器中放置每种植物的五颗种子，并记录在 9 个夏季的日子里丢失、吃掉和脱落的种子数量。Eucalyptus globulus 种子对三个地点的动物群具有很高的吸引力。近一半的 E. globulus 种子早于或被移除，因此与我们的假设相矛盾。令人惊讶的是，E. globulus 和 A. dealbata 种子以相似的比例被动物使用，而 C. salviifolius 种子是最不优选的。脊椎动物是主要的种子捕食者，更喜欢外星种子。无脊椎动物以相似的比例使用所有种子物种。我们根据以下模式发现了关于种子捕食者的主要类型和种子捕食水平的空间变化：脊椎动物的优势；无脊椎动物的优势；可忽略不计的种子捕食者活动。种子捕食可忽略不计的位置丰富且分散在整个研究区域。这种空间变化可能有助于解释先前研究中发现的 E. globulus 幼苗的异质募集模式。