Climate warming could shift the timing of seed germination in alpine plants

Abstract

Climate warming will lead to a shift from spring to autumn emergence but the extent of this change across species will be driven by seed dormancy status. Ungerminated seeds at the end of autumn will be exposed to shorter winter seasons and lower spring temperatures in a future, warmer climate, but these changes will only have a minor impact on germination. The extent to which climate change will be detrimental to regeneration from seed is less likely to be due to a significant negative effect on germination per se, but rather to seedling emergence in seasons that the species are not adapted to experience. Emergence in autumn could have major implications for species currently adapted to emerge in spring.

Inconclusive Predictions and Contradictions: A Lack of Consensus on Seed Germination Response to Climate Change at High Altitude and High Latitude

“…There are a small but increasing number of studies addressing the possible effects of warming on germination ecology of alpine species [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. However, the results of these studies have led to uncertainties in answering the important question: does a warmer alpine climate favor or hamper the germination of seeds?…”

“…We were able to include only five studies in their entirety; all the combination of treatments applied to different species listed in these five studies met our review requirements: 6 rows [27], 6 rows [31], 46 rows [28], 16 rows [26], and 90 rows [25]. In some other studies, only part of the investigation made it into our analysis as treatments were omitted because they could not be satisfactorily compared to the control.…”

“…Many compelling new attempts have shown interest in studying the reverse, whereby the effects of various possible cold-stratification conditions that are predicted to result from a warming future climate are compared with the current winter conditions [26,28]. It has been assumed that these methods would inform us about the effects of a warmer climate on dormancy breaking.…”

“…Similarly, late snow arrival could also shift seed germination time of some species, for example, Geum, Veronica, and Oxyria, to autumn (i.e., immediately after dispersal), instead of germinating after snow melt in spring as they do currently, probably also due to the seeds maturing in warmer conditions resulting in nondormant or conditionally dormant seeds [26]. Longer snow-free growing seasons expected from warmer climate in the future might increase the window of opportunity for germination, but the success of seedling establishment may be increased or decreased depending largely upon the location and species [30,31,59,76,77].…”

Freezing, cooling and storage of pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Dusch) seeds produced in biodynamic system

“…In contrast, conventional systems pose a threat to the environment, leading to contamination of soil, water, air, plants, animals and humans (Yadav, 2010). Climate change can also affect crop production and seed recruitment, increasing the need for adaptive and resilient cultivars (Mondoni et al, 2012).…”