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• The role of clothing in antropochorous seed dispersal

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  Katalin Lukács

  Orsolya Valkó

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  Humans play an increasing role in seed dispersal. Through human help, seeds can bridge distances which otherwise would not be possible. The most important human-mediated dispersal types are: the spread on clothing, shoes and vehicles. The effect of these dispersal types can be combined in many cases. During dispersal with clothing, the seeds attach to cloths, but its probability depends on whether the seeds or other parts of the plant have morphological characteristics which make the attachment possible (e.g. hooks, hairs, spikes) and on the adhesion characteristics of the clothing (cotton/nylon, drill/cotton). This way, cloth-dispersal can be considered analogous to epizoochory. In our review, we evaluated the publications about human-mediated seed dispersal on cloths. In total we have found twelve experimental and field studies on the topic. So far, seeds of 449 species have been documented to be able to spread on clothing worldwide, out of the 449 species, 262 occur in Hungary. With future studies, these numbers will be increasing considerably. The average dispersal distance of the seeds was estimated between 150 and 5000 m, but the distance could be significantly increased, if means of transport are used during the dispersion. According to the results, the seeds of weed and invasive plants are dispersed most frequently on clothing (87% of all species, 26% of species occurring in Hungary). These cause serious damage worldwide. We emphasise that people should pay attention to the type of clothing, when they are visiting remote and unique nature reserves. For instance, waterrepellent foot wears could significantly reduce the adhesion of the seeds therefore it can prevent unintended seed dispersal. Further investigations are needed to find solutions to these problems, especially in regions with lack of these studies, such as in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa.