2015-16

Biology
INVESTIGATORY PROJECT

Dispersal of Seeds
Anirudh Murali
Chaitanya Techno School
Bangalore
 INDEX

1. CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE

2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

3. AIM OF PROJECT

4. INTRODUCTION

5. THEORY

6. MATERIAL REQUIRED

7. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE.
8. OBSERVATION

9. CONCLUSION

11. BIBLIOGRAPHY
DEPARTMENT OF Biology

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Anirudh Murali, a student

of class XII has successfully completed the
research on the below mentioned project under
the guidance of __________ ( Subject Teacher )
during the year 2015-16 in partial fulfillment of
physics practical examination conducted.

Signature of external examiner Signature

of Biology teacher
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the accomplishment of this project successfully, many

people have best owned upon me their blessings and the
heart pledged support, this time I am utilizing to thank all
the people who have been concerned with project.

Primarily I would thank god for being able to complete this

project with success. Then I would like to thank my
principal________ and Biology teacher ________, whose
valuable guidance has been the ones that helped me patch
this project and make it full proof success his suggestions and
his instructions has served as the major contributor towards
the completion of the project.

Then I would like to thank my parents and friends who have

helped me with their valuable suggestions and guidance has
been helpful in various phases of the completion of the
project.

Last but not the least I would like to thank my classmates

who have helped me a lot.
Aim
To Study of Dispersal of Seeds by Various Agencies

INTRODUCTION
The Process of scattering of fruits and seeds to distant places away om their
parent is caalled dispersal on dessemination. It provides the new palnts better
chances of obtaining water, nutrients, lights and space thereby enabling them to
have a better start in Life.

The fruits and seeds develop many devices for better dispersal through different
agencies.

The principle agencies that aid in the dispersal of fruits and seeds are wind
(anemochary), water (hydrochory) and animals including man (zoochory). Besides,
some plants show self dispersal by explosive mechanism (autochory). The dispersal
through the agency of animals in consideredas the best and most successful
method. Dispersal thorugh agency of animals is considered as the best and most
successful method.Dispersal of seeds and fruits is quite Intresting subject of
natural phenomenon and hence the study of dispersal of seeds by various
agencieshas been selected for the present project.
Theory

Benefits

Seed dispersal is likely to have several benefits for plant species.

1. Seed survival is often higher away from the parent plant. This higher survival
may result from the actions of density-dependent seed and seedling predators
and pathogens, which often target the high concentrations of seeds beneath
adults. Competition with adult plants may also be lower when seeds are
transported away from their parent.
Seed dispersal also allows plants to reach specific habitats that are favorable for
survival, a hypothesis known as directed dispersal. Male bellbirds perch on dead trees in
order to attract mates, and often defecate seeds beneath these perches where the
seeds have a high chance of survival because of high light conditions and escape from
fungal pathogens.
2. In the case of fleshy-fruited plants, seed-dispersal in animal guts (endozoochory)
often enhances the amount, the speed, and the asynchrony of germination, which can
have important plant benefits.
3.Seeds dispersed by ants (myrmecochory) are not only dispersed short distances but
are also buried underground by the ants. These seeds can thus avoid adverse
environmental effects such as fire or drought, reach nutrient-rich microsites and
survive longer than other seeds.
4. These features are peculiar to myrmecochory, which may thus provide additional
benefits not present in other dispersal modes.
5. Finally, at another scale, seed dispersal may allow plants to colonize vacant habitats
and even new geographic regions.

Gravity (Autochory)
1.Barochory or the plant use of gravity for dispersal is a
simple means of achieving seed dispersal. The effect of gravity on heavier fruits causes
them to fall from the plant when ripe. Fruits exhibiting this type of dispersal include
apples, coconutsand passionfruit and those with harder shells (which often roll away
from the plant to gain more distance). Gravity dispersal also allows for later
transmission by water or animal.
2 Two other types of autochory are ballochory (the seed is forcefully ejected by
dehiscence and squeezing) and herpochory(the seed crawls by means of trichomes and
changes in humidity).

Wind Allochory
* Wind dispersal of dandelion seeds Entada phaseoloides Hydrochory Wind dispersal
(anemochory) is one of the more primitive means of dispersal. Wind dispersal can take
on one of two primary forms: seeds can float on the breeze or alternatively, they can
flutter to the ground.
* The classic examples of these dispersal mechanisms
include dandelions, which have a feathery pappus
attached to their seeds and can be dispersed long
distances, and maples, which have winged seeds
(samara) and flutter to the ground. An important
constraint on wind dispersal is the need for abundant
seed production to maximise the likelihood of a seed
landing in a site suitable for germination. However,
limited wind in its habitat prevents the seeds to successfully disperse away from its
parents, resulting in clusters of population.

Reliance on wind dispersal is common among many weedy or ruderal species.

Water (hydrochory)

Many aquatic (water) and some terrestrial (ground) plant species use hydrochory,
or seed dispersal through water. Seeds can travel for extremely long distances,
depending on the specific mode of water dispersal.This is because some fruits are
waterproof and can float.
The water lily is an example of such a plant. Water lilies' flowers make a fruit that floats
in
the water for a while and then drops down to the bottom to take root on the floor of the
pond.
The seeds of palm trees can also be dispersed by

water. If they grow near oceans, the

seeds can be transported by ocean
currents over long distances, allowing the seeds to be dispersed as far as
other continents.

By animals (zoochory)
The small hooks on the surface of abur enable attachment to animal fur for
dispersion.Animals can disperse plant seeds in
several ways, all named zoochory. Seeds can
be transported on the outside of vertebrate
animals (mostly mammals), a process known as
epizoochory. Plant species transported
externally by animals can have a variety of
adaptations for dispersal, including adhesive
mucus, and a variety of hooks, spines and
barbs.The small hooks on the surface of abur enable
attachment to animal fur for dispersion.

However, epizoochory is a relatively rare dispersal syndrome for plants as a whole;

the percentage of plant species with seeds adapted for transport on the outside
of animals is estimated to be below 5%.
Seed dispersal via ingestion by vertebrate animals (mostly birds and mammals), or
endozoochory, is the dispersal mechanism for most tree species.Endozoochory is
generally a coevolved mutualistic relationship in which a plant surrounds seeds with an
edible, nutritious fruit as a good food for animals that consume it. Birds and mammals
are the most important seed dispersers, but a wide variety of other animals, including
turtles and fish, can transport viable seeds.

Seed predators, which include many rodents (such as squirrels) and some birds (such as
jays) may also disperse seeds by hoarding the seeds in hidden caches.The seeds in
caches are usually well-protected from other seed predators and if left uneaten will
grow into new plants. In addition, rodents may also disperse seeds via seed spitting due
to the presence ofsecondary metabolites in ripe fruits.
Other types of zoochory are chiropterochory (by bats), malacochory (by molluscs, mainly
terrestrial snails), ornithochory (by birds) and saurochory (by non-bird sauropsids).
Dispersal by humans (anthropochory) used to be seen as a form of dispersal by
animals. Recent research points out that human dispersers differ from animal
dispersers by a much higher mobility based on the
technical means of human transport.Dispersal by
humans on the one hand may act on large
geographical scales and lead to invasive species. On
the other hand, dispersal by humans also acts on
smaller, regional scales and drives the dynamics of
existing biological populations.Humans may disperse
seeds by many various means and some surprisingly
high distances have been repeatedly measured. Examples are: dispersal on human
clothes (up to 250 m),on shoes (up to 5 km) or by cars (regularly ~ 250m, singles
cases > 100 km).

Material Required;-
Different types of seeds and fruits,Knife,Foreceps,Petridishes,Hand lens etc.

Experimental Procedure.
1. Collect different types of seeds and observe their feature carefully, Classify them
according to their mode of dispersal.
2. Similarly cut open different types of Fruits, note down the feature of their seeds and
classify them according to the mode of dispersal.
3. Record Observation
Observation:

S.No Plant Characteristics of Mode of

Seeds/Fruits Dispersal/External
Agencies
1 Impatiens(Balsam) Capsulsular Fruit,Mature Autochory/Explosive
Fruit burst Open with Force mechanism
when touched and seeds are
shot several feet away.
2. Viola (Pansy) Fruit capsule.tension develops Autochory/Explosive
in the drying wall of the mechanism
carpels causing the fruit to
Burst open along the line
dehiscene.
3. Acer(Maple)Hopea, Thin wing like expansion are Anemochary/Dispersal
Tecoma,Heloptelia present in seeds/Fruits,Wings by wind.
(Chilbil),Shorea(Sal), provide large surface area to
Elm,Moringa,Jacornida, the wind for their dispersal.
Cinchoria,Albiziz
(Siris),Dalbergia
(Shisham)
4. Dandelion, Sonchus Fruit single seeded cypsela Anemochary/Dispersal
with a tuft of hair(pappus) ay by wind.
upper end. Pappus open up like
a parchute.
5. Calotropis (Ak), Seeds have hairy outgrowth Anemochary/Dispersal
Alstonia, Bombax to providelarge surface area by wind.
(Sembal) to the wind
6. Chenopodium Seed/Fruit very light,Float on Hydrochory/Dispersal
(Bathua),Polygonum the surface of water. by water
7. Nymphea (Water Lily), Spongy thelamus or spongy Hydrochory/Dispersal
Nelumbiam (Lotus), Mesocarp of the fruit. by water
Cocus (Coconut)
 8. Boerhavia,Plumbago,Cleo Fruits are sticky and can stick Zoochory/Dispersal by
me. to the body of animals. animals
9. Achyranthus Fruits and seeds have Zoochory/Dispersal by
(Phuthkanda), Xanthium, barbs,hooks,or spines to get animals
Tribulus, Madicago attach with fur of the animal.
(Maina).Martynia
(Tigers Claw)
10 Loranthus, Viscus, Seeds are sticky and seeds Zoochory/Dispersal by
Cordia stick to the beek of the Birds
Birds.
11. Ficus (Banyan & Pipal Fruits edible, chiefly eaten by Zoochory/Dispersal by
Tree) birds,seeds released Birds
unharmed with faeces.
12. Crop Fruits/Seeds have econimic Zoochory/Dispersal by
Plants(Cereals,pulses, Importance. Man
spices)

CONCLUSION
Seed dispersal has many consequences for the ecology and evolution of plants. Dispersal
is necessary for species migrations, and in recent times dispersal ability is an important
factor in whether or not a species transported to a new habitat by humans will become
an invasive species.Dispersal is also predicted to play a major role in the origin and
maintenance of species diversity.

Dispersal of seeds away from the parent organism has a central role in two major
theories for how biodiversity is maintained in natural ecosystems..Seed dispersal is
essential in allowing forest migration of flowering plants.
In addition, the speed and direction of wind are highly influential in the dispersal
process and in turn the deposition patterns of floating seeds in the stagnant water
bodies. The transportation of seeds is led by the wind direction. This effects
colonization situated on the banks of a river or to wetlands adjacent to streams relative
to the distinct wind directions. The wind dispersal process can also effect connections
between water bodies. Essentially, wind plays a larger role in the dispersal of
waterborne seeds in a short period of time, days and seasons, but the ecological process
allows the process to become balanced throughout a time period of several years. The
time period of which the dispersal occurs is essential when considering the consequences
of wind on the ecological process.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
HELP FROM INTERNET & Wikipedia
INFORMATION FROM LIBRARY
HELP FROM TEACHERS
Comprhensive Lab Manual J.P.Sharma