Studies on the Seed Dispersal and Secondary Succession of Offshore Islands, Hong Kong

Abstract:

Based on the biodiversity investigation of 121 offshore islands of Hong Kong, the fruit types and seed dispersal patterns of 1035 species were analyzed. The results showed that fruit types could be divided into 14 types, among which the top 4 types were capsule, drupe, berry and achene, accounting for 22.57%, 13.29%, 11.7% and 11.07% of the total, respectively. There were 4 main dispersal patterns of seeds, such as animal dispersal (779 species, including 722 species by birds), wind dispersal (399 species), human dispersal (29 naturalized species) and flow dispersal (60 species). Meanwhile, there were 188 species with more than 2 natural dispersal patterns (excluding human dispersal). In addition, the dispersal by birds and other animals plays an important role on the secondary vegetation formation of these offshore islands.

Key words:Offshore Islands;Plant dispersal;Fruit type;Vegetation