Maternal Effects at Four Levels in Senecio Vulgaris (Asteraceae) Grown on a Soil Nutrient Gradient

Abstract

Plants of Senecio vulgaris L. were grown individually within pots to examine effects of maternal soil nutrient level on offspring. Genotypic variability among maternal plants was minimized by using only maternal plants derived from seed of a single inbred line. Significant (P < 0.05) maternal effects of the nutrient gradient were detected at four different levels. Maternal plants grown in lower soil nutrients produced: 1) seeds with lower individual mass; 2) seeds that germinated later; 3) seedling offspring that grew into smaller juvenile plants in nutrient‐impoverished soil; and 4) seedling offspring that survived longer in the absence of external nutrients. This last type of maternal effect is reported for the first time in the present study. These data suggest that a compensatory effect of relatively low maternal soil nutrient level may be conferred on the plant's offspring in the form of a “wait and tolerate” strategy through a longer “seedling dormancy” period. This appears to involve a high seedling tolerance threshold level for external nutrient deprivation. To account for these results, we propose two hypotheses based on two different causes of nutrient deprivation, and based on the assumption that if maternal plants experience nutrient deprivation, seedling offspring have a high probability of also experiencing the same cause of nutrient deprivation: 1) Under the “nutrient supply hypothesis,” the wait and tolerate strategy in seedling offspring represents an adaptation to selection factors associated with nutrient deprivation resulting from a low nutrient‐supplying power of the environment. 2) Under the “nutrient‐depletion hypothesis,” this strategy represents an adaptation to selection factors associated with nutrient depletion by neighbors.

Maternal Determinants of Seed Dispersal in Cakile edentula: Fruit, Plant, and Site Traits

“…These same traits exhibit significant variation as a function of the maternal environment. Similar traits often show great variation in response to environmental conditions in many other systems (e.g., Turner and Rabinowitz 1983, Weiner 1985, Schmitt et al 1986, 1987, Aarssen and Burton 1990, Sultan and Bazzaz 1993a, although in these systems the relationship of these traits to dispersal was not investigated (Donohue and Schmitt 1998). This study, therefore, provides unusual evidence that seed dispersal can exhibit maternal environmental effects (see also Baker andO'Dowd 1982, Peroni 1994).…”

An explicit test for the contribution of environmental maternal effects to rapid clinal differentiation in an invasive plant

“…EME studies have generally considered one or two specific sources of environmental variation on maternal plants, which can influence the seeds and ⁄ or the offspring. Sources of variation in soil nutrient levels and water availability have been thoroughly addressed (Stratton, 1989;Aarssen & Burton, 1990;Philippi, 1993;Schmid & Dolt, 1994;Luzuriaga et al, 2005), and other studies focused on the effects of photoperiod (Munir et al, 2001), intra-or inter-specific competition (Platenkamp & Shaw, 1993;Donohue, 1999) or herbivory (Weiner et al, 1997). However, few studies have questioned the effects of climatic conditions on seed and seedling characteristics (Alexander & Wulff, 1985;Blö dner et al, 2007).…”

Parental effects and provisioning under drought and low phosphorus stress in common bean

“…This phenomenon is defined as environmental parental effects. Parental effects have been studied for various abiotic stresses including salinity stress (Amzallaga, 1994), shading (Causin, 2004;Galloway, 2005), low soil fertility (Aarssen & Burton, 1990;Latzel, Janeček, Doležal, Klimešová, & Bossdorf, 2014;Parrish & Bazzaz, 1985;Platenkamp & Shaw, 1993;Sultan, 1996;Wulff, Caceres, & Schmitt, 1994), nitrogen stress (Latzel, Klimešová, Hájek, Gómez, & Šmilauer, 2010;Luzuriaga, Escudero, & Perez-Garcia, 2006), P stress (Austin, 1966;Derrick & Ryan, 1998;Yan, Lynch, & Beebe, 1995), and drought (Aarssen & Burton, 1990;Hill, West, & Hinson, 1986;Meckel, Egli, Phillips, Radcliffe, & Leggett, 1984;Parrish & Bazzaz, 1985;Riginos, Heschel, & Schmitt, 2007). Parental effects may include structural or physiological responses in progeny triggered by the parental environment, where responses may or may not be exaggerated in progeny grown in similar environmental conditions as the parent plant.…”

“…Stressful parent environments may reduce parental provisioning of seeds, often resulting in less seed weight and volume. For instance, soybean (Glycine max) seed from drought-stressed parents (Hill et al, 1986;Meckel et al, 1984), and Abutilon theophrasti seed (Parrish & Bazzaz, 1985) and Senecio vulgaris seed (Aarssen & Burton, 1990) from nutrient-stressed parents had less weight. Seed weight was reduced in progeny from P-stressed parent plants in common bean (Yan et al, 1995) and wheat (Triticum aestivum) (Derrick & Ryan, 1998).…”

“…The effects of a stressful parental environment on progeny traits may also persist in later life stages (Riginos et al, 2007;Wulff et al, 1994). Progeny with reduced parental provisioning from nutrient-stressed parents had reduced fitness, competitive ability, and seedling vigor (Aarssen & Burton, 1990;Parrish & Bazzaz, 1985;Platenkamp & Shaw, 1993). Poor parental provisioning of seeds from parents grown under P stress produced progeny with less juvenile shoot biomass in watercress (Rorippa nasturtium aquaticum) (Austin, 1966) and less root weight in wheat (Derrick & Ryan, 1998) and common bean (Yan et al, 1995).…”