Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T01:13:35.690Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Seed mass and elevation explain variation in seed longevity of Australian alpine species

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2018

Annisa Satyanti ,
Adrienne B. Nicotra ,
Thomas Merkling  and
Lydia K. Guja
Annisa Satyanti*
Affiliation:
Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, Building Number 116, Daley Road, Acton ACT 2601, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia Center for Plant Conservation – Botanic Gardens, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Jalan Ir. Haji Juanda 16003, Bogor, Indonesia National Seed Bank, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Clunies Ross Street, Acton ACT 2601, Canberra, Australia
Adrienne B. Nicotra
Affiliation:
Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, Building Number 116, Daley Road, Acton ACT 2601, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
Thomas Merkling
Affiliation:
Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, Building Number 116, Daley Road, Acton ACT 2601, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
Lydia K. Guja
Affiliation:
National Seed Bank, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Clunies Ross Street, Acton ACT 2601, Canberra, Australia Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research, CSIRO, Clunies Ross Street, Acton ACT 2601, Canberra, Australia
*
Author for correspondence: Annisa Satyanti, Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Conserving alpine ecosystems and the plant communities they contain using ex situ conservation requires an understanding of seed longevity. Knowledge of seed longevity may determine the effectiveness of ex situ seed banking for alpine plant conservation, and may provide insight into plant recruitment in situ. We sought to determine the influence of elevation and climatic variables, as well as plant and seed traits, on the seed longevity of 57 species inhabiting a unique biome, (sub-)alpine regions of mainland Australia. Seed longevity was estimated using controlled accelerated ageing tests to determine the time taken for seed viability to fall by 50%. We found that, across the study species, like alpine seeds elsewhere in the world, Australian alpine seeds are relatively short-lived and overall shorter-lived than Australian plants in general. Seed mass and elevation explained most of the variation in seed longevity among the Australian alpine species considered. Species with larger seed mass, and collections made at higher elevations, were found to have relatively short-lived seeds. Phylogeny, however, explained very little of the variation in longevity. Our results suggest that viability testing for Australian alpine seeds in ex situ seed banks should be conducted with shorter intervals than for the non-alpine flora. This study highlights how seed longevity in the Australian Alps is not dictated primarily by evolutionary lineage but rather by a complex combination of environmental variables and intrinsic seed characteristics. Potential implications for conservation ex situ and in situ in the context of climate change are discussed.

Keywords

alpine seedscontrolled ageingcomparative longevityecological correlateselevationlifespanp50seed traits
Type
Research Paper
Information
Seed Science Research , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , December 2018 , pp. 319 - 331
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Current address: Department of Natural Resource Sciences McGill University, 21111 Lakeshore Rd, Ste Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, H9X 3V9, Canada.

References

Arroyo, MTK, Cavieres, LA, Castor, C and Humaña, AM (1999) Persistent soil seed bank and standing vegetation at a high alpine site in the Central Chilean Andes. Oecologia 119, 126–132.Google Scholar
Arroyo, MTK, Cavieres, LA and Humaña, AM (2004) Experimental evidence of potential for persistent seed bank formation at a subantarctic alpine site in Tierra del Fuego, Chile. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 91, 357–365.Google Scholar
Bates, D, Mächler, M, Bolker, B and Walker, S (2015) Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software 67, 48.Google Scholar
Bernareggi, G, Carbognani, M, Mondoni, A and Petraglia, A (2016) Seed dormancy and germination changes of snowbed species under climate warming: the role of pre- and post-dispersal temperatures. Annals of Botany 118, 529–539.Google Scholar
Bernareggi, G, Carbognani, M, Petraglia, A and Mondoni, A (2015) Climate warming could increase seed longevity of alpine snowbed plants. Alpine Botany 125, 69–78.Google Scholar
Bolker, BM, Brooks, ME, Clark, CJ, Geange, SW, Poulsen, JR, Stevens, MHH and White, J-SS (2009) Generalized linear mixed models: a practical guide for ecology and evolution. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 24, 127–135.Google Scholar
Burnham, KP and Anderson, DR (2003) Model Selection and Multimodel Inference: a Practical Information-Theoretic Approach. Springer Science and Business Media.Google Scholar
Cerabolini, B, Ceriani, RM, Caccianiga, M, Andreis, RD and Raimondi, B (2003) Seed size, shape and persistence in soil: a test on Italian flora from Alps to Mediterranean coasts. Seed Science Research 13, 75–85.Google Scholar
Costin, AB, Gray, M, Totterdell, CJ and Wimbush, DJ (2000) Kosciuszko Alpine Flora. Collingwood, CSIRO Publising.Google Scholar
Costin, AB, Wimbush, DJ and Kirkpatrick, J (2002) Flora values, pp. 55–72, in Independent Scientific Committee (ed), An Assessment of the Values of the Kosciuszko National Park: Interim Report. Canberra: New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service.Google Scholar
Cotto, O, Wessely, J, Georges, D, Klonner, G, Schmid, M, Dullinger, S, Thuiller, W and Guillaume, F (2017) A dynamic eco-evolutionary model predicts slow response of alpine plants to climate warming. Nature Communications 8, 15399.Google Scholar
Coyne, P (2001) Protecting the natural treasures of the Australian Alps. A report to the natural heritage working group of the Australian Alps liaison committee. Canberra: Australian Alps Liaison Committee.Google Scholar
Department of Environment (2015) National recovery plan for the alpine sphagnum bogs and associated fens ecological community. Department of the Environment Australia, Canberra.Google Scholar
Ellis, RH and Roberts, EH (1980) Improved equations for the prediction of seed longevity. Annals of Botany 45, 13–30.Google Scholar
FAO (2013) Genebank Standards for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: FAO.Google Scholar
FAO/ IPGRI (1994) Genebank Standards Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome.Google Scholar
Feild, TS and Arens, NC (2005) Form, function and environments of the early angiosperms: merging extant phylogeny and ecophysiology with fossils. New Phytologist 166, 383–408.Google Scholar
Finch-Savage, WE and Leubner-Metzger, G (2006) Seed dormancy and the control of germination. New Phytologist 171, 501–523.Google Scholar
Funes, G, Basconcelo, S, Díaz, S and Cabido, M (2003) Seed bank dynamics in tall-tussock grasslands along an altitudinal gradient. Journal of Vegetation Science 14, 253–258.Google Scholar
Gelman, A (2008) Scaling regression inputs by dividing by two standard deviations. Statistics in Medicine 27, 2865–2873.Google Scholar
Grueber, CE, Nakagawa, S, Laws, RJ and Jamieson, IG (2011) Multimodel inference in ecology and evolution: challenges and solutions. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 24, 699–711.Google Scholar
Hay, FR, Adams, J, Manger, K and Probert, R (2008) The use of non-saturated lithium chloride solutions for experimental control of seed water content. Seed Science and Technology 36, 737–746.Google Scholar
Hay, FR and Probert, RJ (2013) Advances in seed conservation of wild plant species: a review of recent research. Conservation Physiology 1, cot030.Google Scholar
He, H, de Souza Vidigal, D, Snoek, LB, Schnabel, S, Nijveen, H, Hilhorst, H and Bentsink, L (2014) Interaction between parental environment and genotype affects plant and seed performance in Arabidopsis. Journal of Experimental Botany 65, 6603–6615.Google Scholar
Hopper, SD and Gioia, P (2004) The southwest Australian floristic region: evolution and conservation of a global hot spot of biodiversity. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 35, 623–650.Google Scholar
Hoyle, G, Steadman, K, Good, R, McIntosh, E, Galea, L and Nicotra, AB (2015) Seed germination strategies: an evolutionary trajectory independent of vegetative functional traits. Frontiers in Plant Science 6.Google Scholar
Hoyle, GL, Venn, SE, Steadman, KJ, Good, RB, McAuliffe, EJ, Williams, ER and Nicotra, AB (2013) Soil warming increases plant species richness but decreases germination from the alpine soil seed bank. Global Change Biology 19, 1549–1561.Google Scholar
IPCC (2001) Climate change 2001: The scientific basis. In Houghton, JT, Ding, Y, Griggs, DJ, Noguer, M, van den Linden, PJ, Dai, X, Maskell, K and Johnson, CA (eds). Contribution of Working Group 1 to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge, UK, and New York, USA.Google Scholar
Johnson, JB and Omland, KS (2004) Model selection in ecology and evolution. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 19, 101–108.Google Scholar
Kirkpatrick, J (2002) The Natural Significance of the Australian Alps, pp 9–14, Celebrating Mountains: An International Year of Mountains Conference. Jindabyne: Australian Alps Liaison Committee, Canberra.Google Scholar
Kochanek, J, Buckley, YM, Probert, RJ, Adkins, SW and Steadman, KJ (2010) Pre-zygotic parental environment modulates seed longevity. Austral Ecology 35, 837–848.Google Scholar
Kochanek, J, Steadman, KJ, Probert, RJ and Adkins, SW (2011) Parental effects modulate seed longevity: exploring parental and offspring phenotypes to elucidate pre-zygotic environmental influences. New Phytologist 191, 223–233.Google Scholar
Long, RL, Gorecki, MJ, Renton, M, Scott, JK, Colville, L, Goggin, DE, Commander, LE, Westcott, DA, Cherry, H and Finch-Savage, WE (2015) The ecophysiology of seed persistence: a mechanistic view of the journey to germination or demise. Biological Reviews 90, 31–59.Google Scholar
Long, RL, Panetta, FD, Steadman, KJ, Probert, R, Bekker, RM, Brooks, S and Adkins, SW (2008) Seed persistence in the field may be predicted by laboratory-controlled aging. Weed Science 56, 523–528.Google Scholar
Martin, AC (1946) Comparative internal morphology of seeds. American Midland Naturalist 36, 513–660.Google Scholar
Mazerolle, MJ (2016) AICcmodavg: Model selection and multimodel inference based on (Q)AIC(c). R package version 2.0-4.Google Scholar
McGraw, JB and Vavrek, MC (1989) The role of buried viable seeds in arctic and alpine plant communities, pp. 91–106 in Leck, M, Parker, V and Simpson, R (eds), Ecology of Soil Seed Banks. San Diego: Academic Press Inc.Google Scholar
Merkling, T, Blanchard, P, Chastel, O, Glauser, G, Vallat-Michel, A, Hatch, SA, Danchin, E and Helfenstein, F (2017) Reproductive effort and oxidative stress: effects of offspring sex and number on the physiological state of a long-lived bird. Functional Ecology 31, 1201–1209.Google Scholar
Merritt, DJ, Martyn, AJ, Ainsley, P, Young, RE, Seed, LU, Thorpe, M, Hay, FR, Commander, LE, Shackelford, N, Offord, CA, Dixon, KW and Probert, RJ (2014) A continental-scale study of seed lifespan in experimental storage examining seed, plant, and environmental traits associated with longevity. Biodiversity and Conservation 23, 1081–1104.Google Scholar
Moles, AT, Ackerly, DD, Tweddle, JC, Dickie, JB, Smith, R, Leishman, MR, Mayfield, MM, Pitman, A, Wood, JT and Westoby, M (2007) Global patterns in seed size. Global Ecology and Biogeography 16, 109–116.Google Scholar
Moles, AT, Ackerly, DD, Webb, CO, Tweddle, JC, Dickie, JB, Pitman, AJ and Westoby, M (2005) Factors that shape seed mass evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 102, 10540–10544.Google Scholar
Moles, AT, Hodson, DW and Webb, CJ (2000) Seed size and shape and persistence in the soil in the New Zealand flora. Oikos 89, 541–545.Google Scholar
Mondoni, A, Probert, RJ, Rossi, G, Vegini, E and Hay, FR (2010) Seeds of alpine plants are short lived: implications for long-term conservation. Annals of Botany 107, 171–179.Google Scholar
Myers, N, Mittermeier, RA, Mittermeier, CG, da Fonseca, GAB and Kent, J (2000) Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403, 853–858.Google Scholar
Newton, R, Hay, F and Probert, R (2009) Protocol for comparative seed longevity testing. London: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.Google Scholar
NSW NPWS (1988) Kosciuszko National Park Plan of Management (2nd edn), NPWS Hurstville.Google Scholar
Ooi, MKJ, Auld, TD and Denham, AJ (2009) Climate change and bet-hedging: interactions between increased soil temperatures and seed bank persistence. Global Change Biology 15, 2375–2386.Google Scholar
Parolo, G and Rossi, G (2008) Upward migration of vascular plants following a climate warming trend in the Alps. Basic and Applied Ecology 9, 100–107.Google Scholar
Peco, B, Traba, J, Levassor, C, Sánchez, AM and Azcárate, FM (2003) Seed size, shape and persistence in dry Mediterranean grass and scrublands. Seed Science Research 13, 87–95.Google Scholar
Probert, RJ, Daws, MI and Hay, FR (2009) Ecological correlates of ex situ seed longevity: a comparative study on 195 species. Annals of Botany 104, 57–69.Google Scholar
R Core Team (2016) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria.Google Scholar
Righetti, K, Vu, JL, Pelletier, S, Vu, BL, Glaab, E, Lalanne, D, Pasha, A, Patel, RV, Provart, NJ, Verdier, J, Leprince, O and Buitink, J (2015) Inference of longevity-related genes from a robust coexpression network of seed maturation identifies regulators linking seed storability to biotic defense-related pathways. Plant Cell 27, 2692–2708.Google Scholar
Sallon, S, Solowey, E, Cohen, Y, Korchinsky, R, Egli, M, Woodhatch, I, Simchoni, O and Kislev, M (2008) Germination, genetics, and growth of an ancient date seed. Science 320, 1464.Google Scholar
Schwienbacher, E, Marcante, S and Erschbamer, B (2010) Alpine species seed longevity in the soil in relation to seed size and shape – a 5-year burial experiment in the Central Alps. Flora – Morphology, Distribution, Functional Ecology of Plants 205, 19–25.Google Scholar
Shen-Miller, J, Mudgett, MB, Schopf, JW, Clarke, S and Berger, R (1995) Exceptional seed longevity and robust growth: ancient sacred lotus from China. American Journal of Botany 82, 1367–1380.Google Scholar
Sommerville, KD, Martyn, AJ and Offord, CA (2013) Can seed characteristics or species distribution be used to predict the stratification requirements of herbs in the Australian Alps? Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 172, 187–204.Google Scholar
Soper Gorden, NL, Winkler, KJ, Jahnke, MR, Marshall, E, Horky, J, Hudelson, C and Etterson, JR (2016) Geographic patterns of seed mass are associated with climate factors, but relationships vary between species. American Journal of Botany 103, 60–72.Google Scholar
Thompson, K (2000) The functional ecology of soil seed banks. Seeds: the Ecology of Regeneration in Plant Communities 2, 215–235.Google Scholar
Thompson, K, Band, SR and Hodgson, JG (1993) Seed size and shape predict persistence in soil. Functional Ecology 7, 236–241.Google Scholar
Thuiller, W, Albert, C, Araújo, MB, Berry, PM, Cabeza, M, Guisan, A, Hickler, T, Midgley, GF, Paterson, J, Schurr, FM, Sykes, MT and Zimmermann, NE (2008) Predicting global change impacts on plant species’ distributions: future challenges. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 9, 137–152.Google Scholar
Venn, SE and Morgan, JW (2010) Soil seedbank composition and dynamics across alpine summits in south-eastern Australia. Australian Journal of Botany 58, 349–362.Google Scholar
Walters, C, Wheeler, LM and Grotenhuis, JM (2005) Longevity of seeds stored in a genebank: species characteristics. Seed Science Research 15, 1–20.Google Scholar
Yashina, S, Gubin, S, Maksimovich, S, Yashina, A, Gakhova, E and Gilichinsky, D (2012) Regeneration of whole fertile plants from 30,000-y-old fruit tissue buried in Siberian permafrost. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109, 4008–4013.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Satyanti et al. supplementary material

Satyanti et al. supplementary material 1

Download Satyanti et al. supplementary material(File)
File 570.8 KB