The effects of phylogeny, life-history traits and altitude on the carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus contents of seeds across 203 species from an alpine meadow

Bu, Haiyan; Jia, Peng; Qi, Wei; Liu, Kun; Xu, Danghui; Ge, Wenjing; Wang, Xue Jing

doi:10.1007/s11258-018-0830-6

Cited by 10 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The physiological and morphological processes of seed germination depend highly on seed reserves (Soltani et al ., 2006; Bewley et al ., 2013; Cheng et al ., 2015). Carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are indispensable elements for plant growth (Bu et al ., 2018). C is the main element to form dry matter and energetic materials, N is strongly associated with protein content, and P is an indication of the level of nucleic acids (McGinley and Charnov, 1988; Elser et al ., 2000; Soriano et al ., 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolutionary correlation associated with seed mass and altitude on nutrient allocation of seeds

Zhang

Zhao

et al. 2019

Seed Sci. Res.

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Seed reserves play vital roles in seed germination and seedling growth and their variation may be related to various environment factors, plant traits and phylogenetic history. Here, the evolutionary correlation associated with seed mass and altitude and carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) allocation of seeds among 253 alpine herbaceous plants was tested. In this study, phylogeny had strong limitations on nutrient allocation of seeds across species, and species from younger phylogenetic groups tended to have higher N and P contents, which might be considered as the evolutionary selection of seed plants. Higher seed N and P content would help seedlings to gain more survival chance and stronger competitive capacity, and their progeny would be more likely to be preserved. When phylogeny was considered, altitude only had a significant positive effect on P content, but the negative effects on seed mass were all expressed. The independent effects of altitude and seed mass suggest that the nutrient allocation of seeds might be affected by both environment and plant traits. In addition, altitude and seed mass displayed partial overlapping effects on nutrient allocation of seeds. The negative effects of seed mass were affected slightly by altitude, whereas altitude only had a significant positive effect on P content when seed mass was controlled. Above all, seed P content showed obvious and general correlations with seed mass, altitude and age of clade, which indicated that higher seed P content might be an adaptive selection of species associated with growth and survival of progeny.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolutionary correlation associated with seed mass and altitude on nutrient allocation of seeds

Zhang

Zhao

et al. 2019

Seed Sci. Res.

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“…The main vegetation is that of a typical alpine meadow. The climate is cold Humid-Alpine (annual average temperature ranges from 1.2°C to 4.6°C and annual average precipitation ranges from 516 mm to 780 mm), and growing season is short (from late May to late September) ( Bu et al, 2018 , 2019 ). The dominant species in alpine meadow are mainly from the Asteraceae, Cyperaceae, Fabaceae, Gentianaceae, Polygonaceae, Ranunculaceae, and Scrophulariaceae ( Zhang et al, 2014 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Seeds were subsequently oven-dried at 50°C to a constant mass and ground into a fine powder. N and P concentrations were measured by dry combustion on an elemental analyzer (Elementar TOC Vario, Germany) and the molybdenum blue method on an automatic flow injection analyzer (Lachat Quickchem 8500, United States), respectively, as described by Bu et al (2018) . In total, the data set included 751 paired observations of N and P for seeds.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consequently, environmental variations can exert selective pressures on seed mass, stock nutrient materials, and germination time, thereby resulting in different adaptive strategies ( Lord, 1994 ). For example, Bu et al (2018) found that altitude has a significant effect on N and P seed concentrations. Based on this limited information, we hypothesized that the N vs. P scaling relationship for seeds will vary as a function of altitude.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Allocation Strategies for Seed Nitrogen and Phosphorus in an Alpine Meadow Along an Altitudinal Gradient on the Tibetan Plateau

Wang

et al. 2020

Front. Plant Sci.

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Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) play important roles in many aspects of plant biology. The allocation of N and P in plant vegetative organs (i.e., leaves, stems, and fine roots) is critical to the regulation of plant growth and development. However, how these elements are allocated in seeds is unclear. The aim of this study was to explore the N and P allocation strategies of seeds in an alpine meadow along an altitudinal gradient. We measured the seed N and P contents of 253 herbaceous species in 37 families along an altitudinal gradient (2,000–4,200 m) in the east Tibetan alpine meadow. The geometric means of seed N and P concentrations and N:P ratios were 34.81 mg g–1, 5.06 mg g–1, and 6.88, respectively. Seed N and P concentrations varied across major taxonomic groups and among different altitude zones. N:P ratios showed no significant variations among different taxonomic groups with the exception of N-fixing species. The numerical value of the scaling exponent of seed N vs. P was 0.73, thus approaching 3/4, across the entire data set, but varied significantly across major taxonomic groups. In addition, the numerical value of the scaling exponent of N vs. P declined from 0.88 in the high altitude zone to 0.63 in the low altitude zone. These results indicate that the variations in the numerical value of the scaling exponent governing the seed N vs. P scaling relationship varies as a function of major taxonomic groups and among different altitude zones. We speculate that this variation reflects different adaptive strategies for survival and germination in an alpine meadow. If true, the data presented here advance our understanding of plant seed allocation strategies, and have important implications for modeling early plant growth and development.

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“…471 We found significant differences between populations both in the concentration and seems that these conditions are not the most suitable for seed recruitment and species invest the 481 energy to these specific seed nutrients to supported seed establishment before developed root 482 system. The higher nitrogen and phosphorus concentration of seeds from specific conditions 483 might derive from adaptive selection (Bu et al 2018). We did not find any differences between 484 mother plants within populations, which support the claim about adaptive selection.…”

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Plant origin determines seed mass, seed nutrients and germination behavior of a dominant grass species

Veselá

Duongova

Münzbergová

2020

Preprint

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12Although number of studies exploring effects of climate change on plants is increasing, only 13 few studies pay attention to germination. Understanding of germination behaviour is 14 complicated by impact of climate on seed mass and possibly also seed nutrients, which play 15 irreplaceable role in nourishing the sprout. The germination behaviour of species may also 16 depend on trade-off between generative and vegetative reproduction. 17 We studied Festuca rubra originating from localities situated along a natural climatic 18 grid. Seeds of different origin were germinated in two temperature and two moisture regimes, 19 simulating the extremes of the grid. To study relationship between generative and vegetative 20 reproduction we used data on vegetative traits originating from the same study system. 21Seed mass and nutrient concentrations (nitrogen and phosphorus) were significantly 22 affected by original climate, while carbohydrates not. Higher seed mass and warm temperature 23 of origin caused higher and faster germination. Warm and dry condition during germination 24 caused the lowest germination but the highest seed viability. Total germination and proportion 25 of viable seeds negatively correlated with plant performance variables contributing to 26 vegetative reproduction. Despite this, the patterns detected using datasets of germination and 27 plant performance, did not provide fully comparable results. 28Simulated changes in climatic condition can modify seed mass and seed nutrients and 29 these changes translate into changes in species germination behavior. After accounting for seed 30 mass, both original and target conditions determine species germination indicating that both 31 genetic differentiation as well as actual conditions drive the germination patterns. As the 32 patterns detected at the level of seed germination do not fully match those detected for the 33 vegetative traits, we urge that future studies should focus on multiple stages of plant life to 34 understand species responses to future climates. 35 36 37 38 content, effect of original condition 39 73 intra-specifically due to species adaptation to the climate of origin (Meyer, Allen and Beckstead 74 1997) (Qaderi and Cavers 2002) (Degreef et al. 2002). Many studies, for example, demonstrated 75 that populations of a single species differ in germination percentage with populations coming 76 from the warmest conditions having the highest germination (Cruz et al. 2003) (Ndihokubwayo, 77 Nguyen and Cheng 2016) (Santo, Mattana and Baechetta 2015) (Bauk et al. 2017) (Mira, Arnal 78 and Perez-Garcia 2017). In addition, the differences between seeds of different origin may 79 depend on the actual conditions in which the seeds are produced (Veselá at al. submitted). 80 Effect of seed origin on germination response could be also caused by different seed 81 mass and nutrient content in the seeds because favorable conditions can contribute to higher 82 seed reserve and thus to higher seed mass. Relationship between seed mass and germinat...

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The effects of phylogeny, life-history traits and altitude on the carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus contents of seeds across 203 species from an alpine meadow

Cited by 10 publications

References 47 publications

The evolutionary correlation associated with seed mass and altitude on nutrient allocation of seeds

The evolutionary correlation associated with seed mass and altitude on nutrient allocation of seeds

Allocation Strategies for Seed Nitrogen and Phosphorus in an Alpine Meadow Along an Altitudinal Gradient on the Tibetan Plateau

Plant origin determines seed mass, seed nutrients and germination behavior of a dominant grass species

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