Climate change and plant regeneration from seeds in tropical dry forests

Linking Seed Traits and Germination Responses in Caribbean Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest Species

“…Contrary to what was expected, a low proportion of here evaluated species presented PY (Figure 2A, Table 1, Appendix A Figure A1) [22]. This was also true for Fabaceae species since approximately half did not present PY.…”

“…Several questions remain unanswered regarding the seed ecophysiology of SDTF species. For instance, further investigation is warranted to determine if the lower moisture content values observed are associated with seed desiccation-tolerant SDTF species, as previously suggested [22]. Additionally, exploring the relevance of other seed structures and traits, such as seed coat thickness, color, and embryo type, could provide valuable insights into seed ecophysiology in this ecosystem.…”

“…The first one is that most of the seeds were collected during the dry season, corresponding with a period of low air humidity and a higher proportion of dry fruit species [12,39,45]. Second, most SDTF woody species have desiccant-tolerant (orthodox) seeds, and orthodox seeds tend to have lower moisture content [22]. Although we did not directly test these relationships, we hypothesize that this might be related to the moisture content values we obtained in our analysis.…”

“…On the other hand, seed dormancy, defined as the inability of a seed to germinate under viable germination conditions, can inform community ecological processes such as the formation of a soil seed bank [5,20]. Among the different kinds of dormancy, physical dormancy (PY) has been stated as the most common in SDTF species, meaning that their seed coat is impermeable, preventing imbibition and, thus, germination [21,22]. Although very informative on the regeneration processes, germination responses and dormancy can be challenging to measure because experiments require time and equipment to accurately control environmental conditions [5,23].…”

Delimitación geográfica y florística de la provincia fisiográfica de la Depresión del Balsas, México, con énfasis en el bosque tropical estacionalmente seco

“…Villaseñor y Ortiz (2014) indican que el bioma Bosque Tropical Estacionalmente Seco (BTES) incluye 2 tipos de vegetación: el bosque tropical caducifolio y el bosque espinoso. El BTES presenta una distribución pantropical que se caracteriza por factores climáticos como localidades en las que no se registran heladas, con temperaturas promedio anuales mayores de 17 °C, precipitaciones medias anuales entre 600 y 2,000 mm, o con 3-8 meses secos, que derivan en aspectos fisionómicos y funcionales particulares de las especies vegetales que lo conforman (Banda-R. et al, 2016;Cortés-Flores et al, 2017;Ibarra-Manríquez et al, 2022;Murphy y Lugo, 1986). El BTES es considerado uno de los biomas más diversos y distintivos mundialmente, en especial por la gran cantidad de especies endémicas que contiene (Olson et al, 2000).…”