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The effect of temperature during cone and seed development on primary dormancy of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) seeds

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Abstract

Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) seeds have variable levels of primary dormancy which reflect within-species adaptation to local environments. The objective of this study was to use a thermal time approach to determine whether primary dormancy levels in seeds were correlated with mean ambient temperature during temperature-sensitive phases of the reproductive cycle. Seedlots were obtained from a single open-pollinated clonal seed orchard in five crop years and germinated over a wide temperature range (7–35 °C) to calculate base temperature for germination with and without pre-chills (4 and 8 weeks). Primary dormancy levels varied amongst seedlots collected in different crop years (CY). Unchilled seeds were the most dormant for CY2007 (Tb = 10.9 °C) and least dormant for CY2012 (Tb = 5.6 °C). Base temperatures for germination were correlated with mean ambient temperature during different phases of the reproductive cycle. There was a strong positive correlation between base temperature for germination of unchilled seeds and mean temperature during pollination and early pollen tube growth. This suggests that maternal environmental effects during this phase could potentially select for dormant or non-dormant seeds, which has implications for tree breeding and seedling production in forest nurseries.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Forestry Commission, GB for supplying the seeds used in this experiment; Paul Taylor, Forest Research for downloading the relevant meteorological data; Prof Richard Ellis (University of Reading) for constructive criticism on a draft version of the paper, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on the submitted version.

Funding

We acknowledge funding from the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission UK for MPR and from Forestry Commission, GB for SAM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forest Research, Alice Holt Lodge, Farnham, Surrey, GU10 4LH, England

    Shelagh A. McCartan, Jack Forster & Richard L. Jinks

  2. Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Private Bag 0027, Gaborone, Botswana

    Melusi P. Rampart

  3. School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW, Wales

    Christine M. Cahalan

Authors
  1. Shelagh A. McCartan
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  2. Jack Forster
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  3. Richard L. Jinks
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  4. Melusi P. Rampart
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  5. Christine M. Cahalan
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Contributions

SAM conceived the idea and designed the experiment; MPR implemented the experiment during his Ph.D., which was supervised by CMC; SAM, JF and RLJ analysed the data; SAM, JF, RLJ and CMC co-wrote the paper. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jack Forster.

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McCartan, S.A., Forster, J., Jinks, R.L. et al. The effect of temperature during cone and seed development on primary dormancy of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) seeds. New Forests 53, 935–946 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11056-021-09884-9

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