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Within population variation in germination response to smoke cues: convergent recruitment strategies and different dormancy types

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Abstract

Aims

Maintaining variation in germination response provides a selective advantage, by spreading risk during recruitment. In fire-prone regions, physically dormant (PY) species vary their response to dormancy-breaking fire-related heat cues at the intra-population level. However little is known about physiologically dormant (PD) species, which respond to smoke cues. These contrasting dormancy types reflect different evolutionary developmental pathways and we considered whether intra-population variation in germination of Boronia floribunda (PD) occurs in response to smoke.

Methods

Seeds were collected from individual plants. We assessed germination magnitude and rate of seeds from each individual in response to a single aerosol smoke treatment, and three concentrations of smoke water, using replicate seed lots in temperature-controlled incubators.

Results

The magnitude and onset of germination differed significantly among individuals in response to the same smoke treatment. Seeds from different individuals varied in their sensitivity to smoke water concentration, with some responding to very low doses, and others obligated to high doses.

Conclusions

Variation in germination response to smoke highlights a mechanism by which PD species spread risk, by allowing some seeds to emerge quickly, while others remain dormant in the soil seed bank. The similarity to heat-cued variation displayed by PY species suggests that this could represent a convergent functional response.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the the National Basic Research Program of China [2015CB150802 to H.M.], National Natural Science Foundation of China [41371260 to H.M.], the National Key R & D Program of China [2017YFC0505901 to H.W. and 2016YFC0501206 to H.M.] and funding from a NSW Office of Environment and Heritage Tender [ENV1381 to M.K.J.O.] entitled ‘Fire and threatened species management’. Hongyuan Ma was given a K.C. Wong Education Foundation ‘Excellent Woman Scientist of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ award to visit Mark Ooi’s laboratory. Mark Ooi is part of the Threatened Species Recovery Hub (Project 1.3) based at UNSW, which is supported by the Australian Government’s National Environment Science Program (NESP) (www.nespthreatenedspecies.edu.au).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jilin, 130102, China

    Hongyuan Ma & Haitao Wu

  2. Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    Mark K. J. Ooi

  3. Institute for Conservation Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia

    Mark K. J. Ooi

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  1. Hongyuan Ma
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Correspondence to Mark K. J. Ooi.

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Ma, H., Wu, H. & Ooi, M.K.J. Within population variation in germination response to smoke cues: convergent recruitment strategies and different dormancy types. Plant Soil 427, 281–290 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-018-3641-6

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