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Germination Season and Watering Regime, but Not Seed Morph, Affect Life History Traits in a Cold Desert Diaspore-Heteromorphic Annual

Seed morph, abiotic conditions and time of germination can affect plant fitness, but few studies have tested their combined effects on plasticity of plant life history traits. Thus, we tested the hypothesis that seed morph, germination season and watering regime influence phenotypic expression of po...

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Autores principales: Lu, Juan J., Tan, Dun Y., Baskin, Jerry M., Baskin, Carol C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4094427/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25013967
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102018
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author Lu, Juan J.
Tan, Dun Y.
Baskin, Jerry M.
Baskin, Carol C.
author_facet Lu, Juan J.
Tan, Dun Y.
Baskin, Jerry M.
Baskin, Carol C.
author_sort Lu, Juan J.
collection PubMed
description Seed morph, abiotic conditions and time of germination can affect plant fitness, but few studies have tested their combined effects on plasticity of plant life history traits. Thus, we tested the hypothesis that seed morph, germination season and watering regime influence phenotypic expression of post-germination life history traits in the diaspore-heteromorphic cold desert winter annual/spring ephemeral Diptychocarpus strictus. The two seed morphs were sown in watered and non-watered plots in late summer, and plants derived from them were watered or not-watered throughout the study. Seed morph did not affect phenology, growth and morphology, survival, dry mass accumulation and allocation or silique and seed production. Seeds in watered plots germinated in autumn (AW) and spring (SW) but only in spring for non-watered plots (SNW). A high percentage of AW, SW and SNW plants survived and reproduced, but flowering date and flowering period of autumn- vs. spring-germinated plants differed. Dry mass also differed with germination season/watering regime (AW > SW > SNW). Number of siliques and seeds increased with plant size (AW > SW > SNW), whereas percent dry mass allocated to reproduction was higher in small plants: SNW > SW > AW. Thus, although seed morph did not affect the expression of life history traits, germination season and watering regime significantly affected phenology, plant size and accumulation and allocation of biomass to reproduction. Flexibility throughout the life cycle of D. strictus is an adaptation to the variation in timing and amount of rainfall in its cold desert habitat.
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spelling pubmed-40944272014-07-15 Germination Season and Watering Regime, but Not Seed Morph, Affect Life History Traits in a Cold Desert Diaspore-Heteromorphic Annual Lu, Juan J. Tan, Dun Y. Baskin, Jerry M. Baskin, Carol C. PLoS One Research Article Seed morph, abiotic conditions and time of germination can affect plant fitness, but few studies have tested their combined effects on plasticity of plant life history traits. Thus, we tested the hypothesis that seed morph, germination season and watering regime influence phenotypic expression of post-germination life history traits in the diaspore-heteromorphic cold desert winter annual/spring ephemeral Diptychocarpus strictus. The two seed morphs were sown in watered and non-watered plots in late summer, and plants derived from them were watered or not-watered throughout the study. Seed morph did not affect phenology, growth and morphology, survival, dry mass accumulation and allocation or silique and seed production. Seeds in watered plots germinated in autumn (AW) and spring (SW) but only in spring for non-watered plots (SNW). A high percentage of AW, SW and SNW plants survived and reproduced, but flowering date and flowering period of autumn- vs. spring-germinated plants differed. Dry mass also differed with germination season/watering regime (AW > SW > SNW). Number of siliques and seeds increased with plant size (AW > SW > SNW), whereas percent dry mass allocated to reproduction was higher in small plants: SNW > SW > AW. Thus, although seed morph did not affect the expression of life history traits, germination season and watering regime significantly affected phenology, plant size and accumulation and allocation of biomass to reproduction. Flexibility throughout the life cycle of D. strictus is an adaptation to the variation in timing and amount of rainfall in its cold desert habitat. Public Library of Science 2014-07-11 /pmc/articles/PMC4094427/ /pubmed/25013967 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102018 Text en © 2014 Lu et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Lu, Juan J.
Tan, Dun Y.
Baskin, Jerry M.
Baskin, Carol C.
Germination Season and Watering Regime, but Not Seed Morph, Affect Life History Traits in a Cold Desert Diaspore-Heteromorphic Annual
title Germination Season and Watering Regime, but Not Seed Morph, Affect Life History Traits in a Cold Desert Diaspore-Heteromorphic Annual
title_full Germination Season and Watering Regime, but Not Seed Morph, Affect Life History Traits in a Cold Desert Diaspore-Heteromorphic Annual
title_fullStr Germination Season and Watering Regime, but Not Seed Morph, Affect Life History Traits in a Cold Desert Diaspore-Heteromorphic Annual
title_full_unstemmed Germination Season and Watering Regime, but Not Seed Morph, Affect Life History Traits in a Cold Desert Diaspore-Heteromorphic Annual
title_short Germination Season and Watering Regime, but Not Seed Morph, Affect Life History Traits in a Cold Desert Diaspore-Heteromorphic Annual
title_sort germination season and watering regime, but not seed morph, affect life history traits in a cold desert diaspore-heteromorphic annual
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4094427/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25013967
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102018
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