Rowell-Rahier [ 35] showed that low vagility in concert with a patchy host plant distribution resulted in a low level of genetic structuring in Oreina speciosissima.
The landscape matrix was more intensively scanned for resources than is generally appreciated in species with a patchy host plant distribution.
Thus, the importance of studies of carnivore-mediated seed deposition in anthropogenic landscapes at multiple spatial scales is two-fold: (i) to understand the influence of the patchy distribution of plants on this mutualism, and (ii) to gauge the influence of cultivated fruits on native plant-carnivore interactions.
Given the constraints imposed by water shortage and overgrazing, patchy distributions of plants are the common pattern [ 31, 52, 55, 63].
The pattern of contamination around the plant is patchy, reflecting wind direction and rainfall at the time of any release.
Overall, our findings support the conclusion that when confronted with heterogeneous, patchy environments of contrasting plant species, cows grazed in a manner consistent with the "intake rate-maximization" hypothesis in two ways.
This may be particularly important within anthropogenic areas, where either the patchy distribution of wild plants or the presence of cultivated fleshy-fruits may influence plant-disperser interactions.
Ecologists have long known that plants in patchy habitats, such as islands, for example, produce more heavy seeds than light seeds, presumably because wind-swept seeds tend to get lost in the ocean.
One explanation for non-social pairs is the typically patchy distribution of food plants in semi-arid environments such as our study site (Webster and Maestre 2004).
However, factors conducive for the development of a reproductively isolated and genetically homogenous natural population include the self-fertile nature of this plant and the patchy distribution of salt flats in the Yukon.
