Towards an Understanding of Factors Controlling Seed Bank Composition and Longevity in the Alpine Environment

Jaganathan, Ganesh K.; Dalrymple, Sarah E.; Liu, Baolin

doi:10.1007/s12229-014-9150-2

Cited by 48 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 166 publications

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“…Given that the appropriate conditions required to complete germination are extremely narrow for arctic-alpine species [21][22][23], many mechanisms have been evolved to synchronize the timing of germination with the short-growing season, so that the seedling establishment and plant growth are maximized [21,22,24]. 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].…”

Section: Journal Of Botanymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Snow beds are of particular importance to seeds due to their capacity for ameliorating the harsh winter weather by insulating the soil surface below [44]. Dense snow cover ensures seeds overwinter in a "safe-repository" and the constant temperature experienced under snow cover, which is close to 0 ∘ C, provides the right conditions for cold-stratification, breaking dormancy, and allowing seeds to germinate in the growing season [24,45,46]. Variation in snow thickness and lesser duration of snow cover may mean that the seeds maintain dormancy during the growing season.…”

Section: Theoretical Predictions For Germination Response To Climate mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Seeds mature with different levels of dormancy based on the location in which they mature, a phenomenon that could allow the seeds to judge duration required for dormancy break [53][54][55]. For example, seeds maturing at higher altitudes have deep PD and require longer duration of cold-stratification [24]. This is an adaptation as at higher altitudes snow cover is long and decrease in altitude correlates with lesser snow cover duration.…”

Section: Theoretical Predictions For Germination Response To Climate mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This may lead to greater burial depths and more infrequent exposure to conditions required for both dormancy breaking and germination [24] possibly leading to higher mortality of seeds over the long term.…”

Section: Theoretical Predictions For Germination Response To Climate mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Seeds of most arctic and alpine species are shed during late summer or autumn and due to the requirement for dormancy breaking, which is satisfied during overwintering, these seeds do not germinate until spring [24,54]. After overwintering, these seeds come out of dormancy and acquire the ability to germinate at wide range of temperature ranging from as low as 5 to 30 ∘ C [22,24].…”

Section: Seed Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Jaganathan

Dalrymple

2016

Journal of Botany

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Climate change directly affects arctic-alpine plants and acute responses to increased temperatures may be seen in their reproductive fitness and germination ability. However, uncertainties prevail in predicting whether a future warmer climate favors or hampers seed germination in high latitude and high altitude soils and seed germination research in such systems has not been able to provide generalizable patterns of response. The available literature on this subject has been conducted at various locations contributing to difficulties in predicting the response of arctic-alpine seeds to climate change. Here, we show that discrepancies in seed collection, dormancy breaking treatments, and germination conditions found in the published literature are possible reasons for our inability to draw large scale conclusions. We explore how these factors influence the results and highlight the fact that many of the previous investigations have reported the effects of warmer temperature, rather than a warmer climate and all the associated complex environmental interactions, on seed germination. We recommend that long-term monitoring of seed response to treatments that mimic the present and future alpine climate is likely to produce more ecologically meaningful insights and suggest several practical steps that researchers can take that would facilitate greater coherence between studies.

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Section: Journal Of Botanymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Predictions For Germination Response To Climate mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Predictions For Germination Response To Climate mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Predictions For Germination Response To Climate mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Seed Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

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

Jaganathan

Dalrymple

2016

Journal of Botany

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Habitat‐related seed germination traits in alpine habitats

Tudela‐Isanta

Fernández‐Pascual

Wijayasinghe

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

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Understanding the key aspects of plant regeneration from seeds is crucial in assessing species assembly to their habitats. However, the regenerative traits of seed dormancy and germination are underrepresented in this context. In the alpine zone, the large species and microhabitat diversity provide an ideal context to assess habitat‐related regenerative strategies. To this end, seeds of 53 species growing in alpine siliceous and calcareous habitats (6230 and 6170 of EU Directive 92/43, respectively) were exposed to different temperature treatments under controlled laboratory conditions. Germination strategies in each habitat were identified by clustering with k‐means. Then, phylogenetic least squares correlations (PGLS) were fitted to assess germination and dormancy differences between species’ main habitat (calcareous and siliceous), microhabitat (grasslands, heaths, rocky, and species with no specific microhabitats), and chorology (arctic–alpine and continental). Calcareous and siliceous grasslands significantly differ in their germination behaviour with a slow, mostly overwinter germination and high germination under all conditions, respectively. Species with high overwinter germination occurs mostly in heaths and have an arctic–alpine distribution. Meanwhile, species with low or high germinability in general inhabit in grasslands or have no specific microhabitat (they belong to generalist), respectively. Alpine species use different germination strategies depending on habitat provenance, species’ main microhabitat, and chorotype. Such differences may reflect adaptations to local environmental conditions and highlight the functional role of germination and dormancy in community ecology.

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Influence of maternal environment in developing different levels of physical dormancy and its ecological significance

Jaganathan

2015

Plant Ecol

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Towards an Understanding of Factors Controlling Seed Bank Composition and Longevity in the Alpine Environment

Cited by 48 publications

References 166 publications

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

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

Habitat‐related seed germination traits in alpine habitats

Influence of maternal environment in developing different levels of physical dormancy and its ecological significance

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