Seed life span and food security

Abstract

Summary Much is known about the inter‐specific distribution of life span in a wide diversity of vertebrates and in adult plants, but not for seeds, yet the functional trait seed life span underpins global agriculture, plant species conservation and seed persistence in the soil. We sourced data for five storage conditions (soil seed bank; high temperature – high humidity accelerated ageing; temperate, cooler, open storage; cool, dry, refrigerator; and cold, dry, freezer); and analysed the distribution of orthodox seed life span amongst crop and wild species. In all cases, whether for maximum known in situ life span in the soil seed bank (417 species), or for half‐lives (P50s) ex situ (732 species), the distribution is right‐skewed. The finding that seeds of > 50% of species are likely to have life spans ≤ 20% of the longest recorded under the same conditions has implications for future research on the evolution of seed traits and gene bank collections management.

Simulated Photovoltaic Solar Panels Alter the Seed Bank Survival of Two Desert Annual Plant Species

“…The 2015 seed cohort was stored under ambient laboratory conditions at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) until 2016 collections were made the following spring. Appropriate storage conditions and duration are key methodological considerations of seed bank studies and best practices are necessary, especially when collecting seeds across multiple cohorts [ 83 ]. After-ripening of seed under summer conditions may also affect the dormancy and germination of winter annual species [ 29 ].…”

A matter of life and death: Molecular, physiological, and environmental regulation of seed longevity

“…Several environmental factors operating during seed storage, including air temperature, relative humidity, and oxygen partial pressure, are key factors influencing seed longevity (Colville & Pritchard, 2019;Groot, Surki, De Vos, & Kodde, 2012;Sun et al, 2015;Ventura et al, 2008;Xin et al, 2014). Seed deterioration is slowed at low storage temperature and moisture level (Walters, Hill, & Wheeler, 2005;Xin et al, 2014), whereas under harsh conditions, such as high temperature and high relative humidity, protein oxidation, and seed deterioration accelerate (Baladi & Balouchi, 2016;Châtelain et al, 2013).…”

Respiração de embriões recalcitrantes de Inga vera Willd. subsp. affinis (DC.) T.D. Pennington sob diferentes temperaturas, potenciais osmóticos e aplicação de ABA

“…De modo geral, a secagem é a forma mais comum de conservar a viabilidade das sementes, permitindo ampliar sua longevidade pela redução das reações metabólicas (Villela & Peres 2004). A capacidade de armazenamento é ampliada, para muitas espécies, quando a redução do teor de água das sementes está associada à diminuição da temperatura do ambiente (Walters et al 2005, Colville & Pritchard 2019. Para sementes sensíveis à dessecação, a utilização de inibidores endógenos, como ABA, a regulação da mobilização da água na semente com soluções osmóticas e os estresses hídricos também se mostraram favoráveis para a conservação.…”