Figure 4

Sensitivity of seed transport behavior to different storm properties. (A) seeds displacement distance for a case with no trapping (gray) and a case where seeds are trapped by vegetation at a rate of 50% per 1 m travelled representing the two ‘end­ member’ cases. Trapping leads to minimal transport within the vegetated band. (B) Probability distribution of the locations of seeds dispersed from the vegetated patch. Note that this is not a dispersal kernel (which shows the probability of movement distances conditional on an initial location), rather this is a probability distribution of the proportion of the seed bank generated by the vegetated patch being present at any given point. This distribution was derived using a primary dispersal kernel based on WALD assuming an average dispersal distance of 10 m. Secondary dispersal was examined with no trapping of the seed in the vegetation (gray lines) and with 50% seeds trapped per 1 m travelled (black lines). (C) Effect of repeated storms on seed distribution in the vegetated patch. The outcome of 10 storms is shown here, for the trapping case. It leads to a distinct bias in seed accumulation at the downslope edge of patches. In all simulations, P = 5 cm/hr^-1, t_storm = 300 seconds, λ = 2, S_o = 0.1 and the vegetated patch is 300 m long.