Polyploidization (diploidy → polyploidy) was more likely to be positively associated with seed mass than with seed germination. Polyploidy is common in flowering plants, and polyploidization can be associated with the various stages of a plant's life cycle. Our primary aim was to determine the association (positive, none or negative) of polyploidy with seed mass/germination via a literature review.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: Fire-released seed dormancy (SD) is a key trait for successful germination and plant persistence in many fire-prone ecosystems. Many local studies have shown that fire-released SD depends on heat and exposure time, dose of smoke-derived compounds, SD class, plant lineage and the fire regime. However, a global quantitative analysis of fire-released SD is lacking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To gather perspectives on childhood vaccination and vaccine hesitancy, the Saint Louis County Department of Public Health (DPH) surveyed parents seeking nonmedical exemptions, conducted focus groups of school nurses, and interviewed pediatricians.
Methods: We distributed exemption forms and voluntary questionnaires to parents in St Louis County who were seeking nonmedical exemptions for their school-aged children at any DPH clinic from August 2019 through December 2022. We conducted and recorded four 75- to 90-minute focus groups of 11 school nurses in groups of 2 or 3 nurses in September 2022.
, the putative wild ancestor of quinoa, is a source of traits that could improve the tolerance of crop quinoa to high temperatures. However, seeds of have physiological dormancy (PD), which is an obstacle for plant propagation and use in breeding programs. We studied the intraspecific variability in morpho-anatomical traits of embryo covering structures and their association with PD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: Seed heteromorphism is a plant strategy that an individual plant produces two or more distinct types of diaspores, which have diverse morphology, dispersal ability, ecological functions and different effects on plant life history traits. The aim of this study was to test the effects of seasonal soil salinity and burial depth on the dynamics of dormancy/germination and persistence/depletion of buried trimorphic diaspores of a desert annual halophyte Atriplex centralasiatica.
Methods: We investigated the effects of salinity and seasonal fluctuations of temperature on germination, recovery of germination and mortality of types A, B, C diaspores of A.
is the most recently evolved genus in the Convolvulaceae, and available information suggests that most species in this family produce seeds with physical dormancy (PY). Our aim was to understand the evolution of seed dormancy in this family via an investigation of dormancy, storage behaviour, morphology and anatomy of seeds of five species from Sri Lanka. Imbibition, germination and dye tracking of fresh intact and manually scarified seeds were studied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnvironmental factors, such as temperature and moisture, and plant factors, such as seed position on the mother plant, can affect seed viability and germination. However, little is known about the viability and germination of seeds in different positions on the mother plant after burial in soil under natural environmental conditions. Here, diaspores from three positions on a compound spike and seeds from two/three positions in a diaspore of the invasive diaspore-heteromorphic annual grass Aegilops tauschii were buried at four depths for more than 2 years (1-26 months) under natural conditions and viability and germination monitored monthly.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Public mental health interventions are non-clinical services that aim to promote wellbeing and prevent mental ill health at the population level. In England, the health, social and community system is characterised by complex and fragmented inter-sectoral relationships. To overcome this, there has been an expansion in co-locating public mental health services within clinical settings, the focus of prior research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground Dengue infection (DI) continues to rise in the Caribbean. Children are primarily affected by severe infection in this region. Parents thus play an essential role in identifying symptoms, seeking medical care, and preventing DI in their children.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInformation on seed persistence and seedling emergence from the soil seed bank is critical for understanding species coexistence and predicting community dynamics. However, quantifying seed persistence in the soil is challenging; thus, its association with other life-history traits is poorly known on a broad scale. Using germination phenology for 349 species in a 42-yr experiment, we quantified the persistence-emergence correlations and their associations with intrinsic regeneration traits using Bayesian phylogenetic multilevel models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmong the diaspores of angiosperms an inflated ovary (IO) is a novel morphological trait, but no studies have evaluated its effects on dispersal. The primary aim of this study was to determine the effect of the IO on diaspore dispersal in three cold desert species (, , and ). Various morphological features and the mass of fruits and seeds of each species were measured.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeed dormancy maximizes plant recruitment in habitats with variation in environmental suitability for seedling establishment. Yet, we still lack a comprehensive synthesis of the macroecological drivers of nondormancy and the different classes of seed dormancy: physiological dormancy, morphophysiological dormancy and physical dormancy. We examined current geographic patterns and environmental correlates of global seed dormancy variation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDifferences in dispersal and dormancy of heteromorphic diaspores of Aegilos tauschii may increase its flexibility to invade/occupy weedy unpredictable habitats by spreading risk in space and time. In plant species that produce dimorphic seeds, there often is a negative relationship between dispersal and dormancy, with high dispersal-low dormancy in one morph and low dispersal-high dormancy in the other, which may function as a bet-hedging strategy that spreads the risk of survival and ensures reproductive success. However, the relationship between dispersal and dormancy and its ecological consequences in invasive annual grasses that produce heteromorphic diaspores is not well studied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe persistence of subtropical seasonally dry forests urgently requires the implementation of ex situ conservation and restoration programs. We studied variation in seed traits and dormancy of six native species growing in seasonally dry Chaco forests of Argentina. We documented high intra- and interspecific variability in seed traits and dormancy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInformation about smoke cues for seed germination is fundamental to understanding fire adaptation. Recently, lignin-derived syringaldehyde (SAL) was identified as a new smoke cue for seed germination, which challenges the assumption that cellulose-derived karrikins are the primary smoke cues. We highlight the overlooked association between lignin and the fire adaptation of plants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSome research indicates that soil seed banks can promote species coexistence through storage effects. However, the seed bank mechanism that maintains plant assembly and its role in degraded grassland restoration are still not clear. We collected seed bank samples from early, mid and late secondary successional stages of an abandoned subalpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau, and samples from each stage were exposed to full (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAccelerated global warming is leading to the loss of plant species diversity, and preservation of seeds is becoming an increasingly important aspect of species conservation. However, information on dormancy and germination is lacking in many endangered species. (Apocynaceae) is the only species native to Korea, and the South Korean Ministry of Environment has designated it Class II endangered wildlife.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPremise: The Campanulaceae (Lobelioideae) is the Hawaiian plant family with the most endangered and extinct species. Although seeds of Hawaiian lobelioids are desiccation tolerant, the species are exceptional (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGermination timing is an important determinant of survival and niche breadth of plants. The annual plant occurs in diverse environments along a steep temperature gradient and thus is a suitable model for the study of germination behavior in response to temperature. We used a modeling approach to compare the germination thermal niche of seeds of nine populations of produced in a common garden.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrecipitation and temperature in the subalpine region have increased dramatically in recent decades due to global warming, and human disturbances have continued to impact the vegetation in the region. Seed bank plays an important role in population recovery, but there are few studies on the synergistic effects of human disturbances and climate change on seed bank. We analyzed the synergistic effects of human disturbances and climate change on seed bank samples from 20 sites in the subalpine coniferous forest region using grazing and logging as the disturbance intensity gradient and precipitation and temperature as climate variables.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeed position - dependent effects on seed dormancy/germination are well documented at the inflorescence/infructescence level, but less is known about seeds at different positions within a dispersal unit. For the invasive winter annual grass we quantified morphology, mass and dormancy/germination of seeds from basal (1), middle (2), and distal (3) positions in two spikelet types (Left and Right). We also investigated seedling emergence, survival, plant size and seed production of plants from seeds in different spikelet positions of two spikelet types under different soil nutrient and water conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe development of methods increasing plant water use efficiency (WUE) would enhance the ability to grow wild aromatic and medicinally important species. The aim of this research was to determine the effect of plant growth regulators (PGRs) applied by spraying on stress resistance and WUE of fennel subjected to water stress. Plants in the generative stage were more drought tolerant than those in the vegetative stage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo understand how light intensity influences plant morphology and photosynthesis in the forage crop alfalfa ( L. cv. Zhongmu 1), we investigated changes in leaf angle orientation, chlorophyll fluorescence, parameters of photosynthesis and expression of genes related to enzymes involved in photosynthesis, the Calvin cycle and carbon metabolism in alfalfa seedlings exposed to five light intensities (100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 μmol m s) under hydroponic conditions.
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