Gone with the waves: the role of sea currents as key dispersal mechanism for Mediterranean coastal and inland plant species.

Thalassochory, the dispersal of propagules through marine currents, is a key long-distance dispersal (LDD) mechanism with implications for global biogeography and particularly for island colonization. The propagules of coastal plant species are generally assumed to be better adapted for sea dispersal than those of inland plants, but this hypothesis remains largely untested. We conducted experiments on four genera (Juniperus, Daucus, Ferula, and Pancratium) and compared traits among nine species with different habitats and distributions.

The Effect of Heat Shock on Seed Dormancy Release and Germination in Two Rare and Endangered L. Species (Fabaceae).

Many species exhibit seeds with physical dormancy (PY), but little is known about the ecological context of this dormancy. We focused on and , two threatened Sardinian endemic species inside the subgenus Bunge. Fresh seeds collected from the only two respective known populations were used to investigate the effect of mechanical scarification, heat shock, and water imbibition processes on PY release and germination.

Best practices, errors, and perspectives of half a century of plant translocation in Italy.

Conservation translocations are becoming common conservation practice, so there is an increasing need to understand the drivers of plant translocation performance through reviews of cases at global and regional levels. The establishment of the Italian Database of Plant Translocation (IDPlanT) provides the opportunity to review the techniques used in 186 plant translocation cases performed in the last 50 years in the heart of the Mediterranean Biodiversity Hotspot. We described techniques and information available in IDPlanT and used these data to identify drivers of translocation outcomes.

Predicting the consequences of global warming on germination at the edge of its distributional and ecological range.

Background: Temperature is the main environmental factor controlling seed germination; it determines both the percentage and the rate of germination. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the global mean surface temperature could increase of approximately 2-4 °C by 2090-2099. As a consequence of global warming, the period of snow cover is decreasing on several mountain areas.

Does Storage under Gene Bank Conditions Affect Seed Germination and Seedling Growth? The Case of (Asteraceae), a Vascular Plant Exclusive to Sardinian Water Meadows.

Understanding seed viability under long-term storage conditions provides basic and useful information to investigate the effectiveness of seed banking. Besides the germination success, seedling establishment is also an important requirement, and a decisive step to ensure plant propagation. We used comparative data of germination, seedling growth, and survival percentage between fresh and 10-years-stored seeds of , a narrow endemic and vulnerable species of Sardinia (Italy), in order to evaluate if differences exist in these traits between fresh and 10-years-stored seeds.