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Comparative Germination Ecology of Two Endemic Rhaponticum Species (Asteraceae) in Different Climatic Zones of the Ligurian and Maritime Alps (Piedmont, Italy)

Comparative studies of seed germination of closely related taxa can help increase our understanding of the ecological limitations of cold-adapted plants and forecast how they might respond to global warming. No studies exist on the relationship between thermoclimatic belts that classify mountain lif...

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Autores principales: Carasso, Valentina, Mucciarelli, Marco, Dovana, Francesco, Müller, Jonas V
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7356568/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32498314
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants9060708
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author Carasso, Valentina
Mucciarelli, Marco
Dovana, Francesco
Müller, Jonas V
author_facet Carasso, Valentina
Mucciarelli, Marco
Dovana, Francesco
Müller, Jonas V
author_sort Carasso, Valentina
collection PubMed
description Comparative studies of seed germination of closely related taxa can help increase our understanding of the ecological limitations of cold-adapted plants and forecast how they might respond to global warming. No studies exist on the relationship between thermoclimatic belts that classify mountain life zones according to bioclimatic criteria and the germination strategy of alpine plants. The aim of this study was to assess this relationship using two closely related species growing in different thermotypes and to test whether their germination responses were related to the climate at natural sites. Fresh Rhaponticum bicknellii and R. scariosum seeds were cold stratified for 0, 30, 60 and 90 days and tested for germination at 10, 15 and 20 °C. At the same time, seed burial experiments were run in the field and in the plant nursery. A GLM analysis showed that the length of cold stratification affected significantly only the germination of R. bicknellii seeds, while increasing temperatures prompted germination in both species. We found that R. bicknellii adopts a drought-avoiding germination strategy, while R. scariosum germination is favoured by warm temperatures. Our findings support the general view that alpine plants do not share common germination requirements and that any conclusions should be interpreted from a biogeographical and bioclimatic perspective. Therefore, seed germination and seedling establishment of endemic alpine species can also be predicted by looking at the bioclimate of the species’ range.
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spelling pubmed-73565682020-07-30 Comparative Germination Ecology of Two Endemic Rhaponticum Species (Asteraceae) in Different Climatic Zones of the Ligurian and Maritime Alps (Piedmont, Italy) Carasso, Valentina Mucciarelli, Marco Dovana, Francesco Müller, Jonas V Plants (Basel) Article Comparative studies of seed germination of closely related taxa can help increase our understanding of the ecological limitations of cold-adapted plants and forecast how they might respond to global warming. No studies exist on the relationship between thermoclimatic belts that classify mountain life zones according to bioclimatic criteria and the germination strategy of alpine plants. The aim of this study was to assess this relationship using two closely related species growing in different thermotypes and to test whether their germination responses were related to the climate at natural sites. Fresh Rhaponticum bicknellii and R. scariosum seeds were cold stratified for 0, 30, 60 and 90 days and tested for germination at 10, 15 and 20 °C. At the same time, seed burial experiments were run in the field and in the plant nursery. A GLM analysis showed that the length of cold stratification affected significantly only the germination of R. bicknellii seeds, while increasing temperatures prompted germination in both species. We found that R. bicknellii adopts a drought-avoiding germination strategy, while R. scariosum germination is favoured by warm temperatures. Our findings support the general view that alpine plants do not share common germination requirements and that any conclusions should be interpreted from a biogeographical and bioclimatic perspective. Therefore, seed germination and seedling establishment of endemic alpine species can also be predicted by looking at the bioclimate of the species’ range. MDPI 2020-06-02 /pmc/articles/PMC7356568/ /pubmed/32498314 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants9060708 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Carasso, Valentina
Mucciarelli, Marco
Dovana, Francesco
Müller, Jonas V
Comparative Germination Ecology of Two Endemic Rhaponticum Species (Asteraceae) in Different Climatic Zones of the Ligurian and Maritime Alps (Piedmont, Italy)
title Comparative Germination Ecology of Two Endemic Rhaponticum Species (Asteraceae) in Different Climatic Zones of the Ligurian and Maritime Alps (Piedmont, Italy)
title_full Comparative Germination Ecology of Two Endemic Rhaponticum Species (Asteraceae) in Different Climatic Zones of the Ligurian and Maritime Alps (Piedmont, Italy)
title_fullStr Comparative Germination Ecology of Two Endemic Rhaponticum Species (Asteraceae) in Different Climatic Zones of the Ligurian and Maritime Alps (Piedmont, Italy)
title_full_unstemmed Comparative Germination Ecology of Two Endemic Rhaponticum Species (Asteraceae) in Different Climatic Zones of the Ligurian and Maritime Alps (Piedmont, Italy)
title_short Comparative Germination Ecology of Two Endemic Rhaponticum Species (Asteraceae) in Different Climatic Zones of the Ligurian and Maritime Alps (Piedmont, Italy)
title_sort comparative germination ecology of two endemic rhaponticum species (asteraceae) in different climatic zones of the ligurian and maritime alps (piedmont, italy)
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7356568/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32498314
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants9060708
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