Functional traits but not environmental gradients explain seed weight in Mongolian plant species

Abstract

Seed weight varies by several orders of magnitude among vascular plant species. However, the importance of potential drivers such as environmental conditions and plant functional traits have rarely been assessed for a larger taxonomic sample.• We collected seeds of 148 species from 237 sites spread across Mongolia and compared their weight among the major zonal vegetation types, taxonomic groups and a set of functional traits (growth form, dispersal mode, fruit type, storage organs and palatability).• Seed weight strongly varied among all functional traits and taxonomic groups, but no differences among vegetation zones were detected.• These results suggest a low impact of environmental conditions on the evolution of seed weight, contrasting the strong phylogenetic signal.

Maximising the use of native seeds in restoration projects

“…Factors that potentially negatively affect species’ seed quality are, for instance, long‐term dry storage (Magrini et al . ) and underground storage (Amartuvshin et al ., ). Although maternal effects on seed dormancy and germination, mediated by the light receptor phytochrome, have been described for the model plant Arabidopsis , this aspect of seed biology has not been given sufficient attention in native wild plant species.…”

Connectivity and fragment size drive plant dispersal and persistence traits in forest steppe fragments

“…Species dispersing by wind or animals efficiently are assumed to be able to colonise more isolated fragments (Vittoz and Engler, 2007). Species with small seed mass have higher dispersal potential by wind because light seeds have lower terminal velocity (Lindborg et al, 2012), whereas heavy seeds with appendices may disperse by animals more effectively (Amartuvshin et al, 2019). Plant species with high dispersal potential are expected to be less vulnerable to fragmentation (Eriksson, 1996), although some studies detected similar (Hemrová and Münzbergová, 2015) or even higher sensitivity to fragmentation of long-distance than short-distance dispersers (Deák et al, 2018).…”