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Untangling interacting mechanisms of seed mass variation with elevation: insights from the comparison of inter-specific and intra-specific studies on eastern Tibetan angiosperm species

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Abstract

With increasing elevation, seed mass is expected to be either larger for its advantage during seedling establishment in stressful high-elevation environments (“stress-tolerance” mechanism) or smaller due to energy constraints. Based on the combination of inter- and intra-specific analyses on 4,023 populations of 320 Tibetan plant species, we found an overall positive within species but negative among species seed mass–elevation relationship, suggesting that regional seed mass distribution with elevation is affected mainly by the energy-constraint mechanism at among-species level, but by the stress-tolerance mechanism at within-species level. Moreover, both intra- and inter-specific analyses revealed a mass-dependent seed mass variation along elevation gradients: small seeds tended to increase but large seeds tended to decrease with increasing elevation, indicating that the stress-tolerance (respectively energy-constraint) mechanism may exert a stronger effect on elevational distribution of small-seeded (respectively large-seeded) populations or species. The mass-dependent seed mass variation along elevation gradients, however, was absent within woody and zoochorous species, implying substantial available resources and long time for seed development, and the covariation or coevolution between the mass of zoochorous seeds and their dispersers may allow for a (partial) decoupling of species’ seed mass and their intra-specific variation with elevation. Together our results call for more comparative analyses at different taxonomic levels in detecting geographic variation in a trait.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Xuelin Chen, Yifeng Wang, Hui Guo, Kun Liu, Xianliang Cui, Xin Yin, Min Yang and Mei Su for their help with field work. The study was supported by the Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China granted to Haiyan Bu (41171046), Guozhen Du (41430749, 41171214) and Juhong Wang (31470021), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities granted to Wei Qi (lzujbky-2014-94) and Xianhui Zhou (lzujbky-2013-100).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Grassland and Agro-Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Wei Qi, Haiyan Bu, Xianhui Zhou, Wenjin Li & Guozhen Du

  2. Systems Ecology, Department of Ecological Science, VU University, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Johannes H. C. Cornelissen

  3. Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, 810008, Qinghai, China

    Chunhui Zhang

  4. Department of Chemistry and Life Science, Gansu Normal University for Nationalities, Hezuo, 747000, China

    Shuqing Guo

  5. Department of Biology, Hanshan Normal University, Chaozhou, 521041, China

    Juhong Wang

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  1. Wei Qi
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  2. Haiyan Bu
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  3. Johannes H. C. Cornelissen
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  4. Chunhui Zhang
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  5. Shuqing Guo
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  6. Juhong Wang
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  7. Xianhui Zhou
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  8. Wenjin Li
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  9. Guozhen Du
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guozhen Du.

Additional information

Communicated by Jennifer Lee Firn.

Electronic supplementary material

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11258_2014_435_MOESM1_ESM.xls

List of 320 species used in the analysis and their functional traits. Ele, elevation; SM, seed mass; LF, life form; DM, dispersal mode; Poll, Pollination system. Abbreviations of Th, Hp, Wp, Ane, Auto, Ecto, Endo, An and En are as specified in Fig. 2. (XLS 518 kb)

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Qi, W., Bu, H., Cornelissen, J.H.C. et al. Untangling interacting mechanisms of seed mass variation with elevation: insights from the comparison of inter-specific and intra-specific studies on eastern Tibetan angiosperm species. Plant Ecol 216, 283–292 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-014-0435-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-014-0435-7

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