1. Lower dormancy with rapid germination is an important strategy for seeds in an arid zone with unpredictable rainfall
- Author
-
Megan K. Good, Corrine Duncan, Wolfgang Lewandrowski, Nick L. Schultz, and Simon Cook
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,Embryology ,Range (biology) ,Rain ,Population Dynamics ,Plant Science ,Plant Reproduction ,01 natural sciences ,Filter Paper ,Seed Germination ,education.field_of_study ,Multidisciplinary ,Ecology ,Plant Anatomy ,Temperature ,Eukaryota ,food and beverages ,Biodiversity ,Plants ,Plant Dormancy ,Laboratory Equipment ,Germination ,Plant Physiology ,Seeds ,Medicine ,Engineering and Technology ,Seasons ,Woody plant ,Research Article ,Science ,Population ,Plant Development ,Equipment ,Biology ,010603 evolutionary biology ,Ecosystems ,Quantitative Trait, Heritable ,education ,Ecosystem ,Community ,Population Biology ,Embryos ,Ecology and Environmental Sciences ,fungi ,Australia ,Organisms ,Biology and Life Sciences ,Arid ,Agronomy ,Seedlings ,Dormancy ,Shrubs ,Serotiny ,010606 plant biology & botany ,Developmental Biology - Abstract
Seed germination traits are key drivers of population dynamics, yet they are under-represented in community ecology studies, which have predominately focussed on adult plant and seed morphological traits. We studied the seed traits and germination strategy of eight woody plant species to investigate regeneration strategies in the arid zone of eastern Australia. To cope with stochastic and minimal rainfall, we predict that arid seeds will either have rapid germination across a wide range of temperatures, improved germination under cooler temperatures, or dormancy and/or longevity traits to delay or stagger germination across time. To understand how temperature affects germination responses, seeds of eight keystone arid species were germinated under laboratory conditions, and under three diurnal temperatures (30/20°C, 25/15°C and 17/7°C) for 30 days. Seeds of species in this study are currently stored for minesite restoration projects, hence we tested for decline in seed viability across 24 months in dry storage at similar storage conditions (≈20°C). Six of the eight arid species studied had non-dormant, rapidly germinating seeds, and only two species had physiological dormancy traits. Seed longevity differed widely between species, from one recalcitrant species surviving only months in storage (P50 =
- Published
- 2019
- Full Text
- View/download PDF