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Effects of precipitation and microorganisms on persistence of buried seeds: a case study of 11 species from the Loess Plateau of China

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Abstract

Background and aims

An integrated understanding of the ecophysiological mechanisms of persistence of buried seeds is essential for understanding plant community dynamics and improving our ability to accurately predict seed persistence. However, little is known about how the interaction of precipitation and microorganisms affects persistence of buried seeds and how well seed traits predict seed persistence, especially in a changing environment.

Methods

Here we determined the combined effect of precipitation and microorganisms on the persistence of buried seeds of 11 species from the Loess Plateau in China, and examined the correlation between seed persistence and seed traits, including seed mass, seed dimensions, seed shape, seed toughness, seed water absorption, total phenolic content, crude protein content and seed longevity.

Results

Seed persistence of all species decreased with increasing precipitation. Fungicide treatment improved seed persistence of all tested species, while the effect size of fungicide treatment on persistence increased with increasing of precipitation. Persistence was positively correlated with seed longevity (P50), seed toughness and total phenolic content in all treatments. Seed water absorption was not correlated with seed persistence. However, the relationship between seed persistence and seed shape, seed mass, crude protein content, seed germination was strongly dependent on environmental conditions.

Conclusions

Changes in precipitation not only affected seed persistence but also the relationship between seed persistence and seed traits. Thus, environmental factors should be fully considered in making predictions about seed persistence based on seed traits.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Professor Carol Baskin for her critical review and constructive suggestions on this manuscript. This study was supported by Gansu Provincial Science and Technology Projects (18JR2TA023), State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems (Lanzhou University) (SKLGAE-2020-05) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (lzujbky-2020-26, lzujbky-2021-it03).

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

Xiaowen Hu conceived the topic. Dali Chen, Xianglai Chen, Cunzhi Jia, Yan Wang and Lingjie Yang performed the experiments. Dali Chen analyzed all statistical data. Dali Chen and Xiaowen Hu wrote the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiaowen Hu.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Responsible Editor: Jeffrey Walck.

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Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (JPG 3759 KB) Photo of our experimental site

Supplementary file2 (TIF 554 KB) Soil moisture content in each plot under different precipitation during seeds burial

Supplementary file3 (TIF 797 KB) Mean monthly rainfall for seeds burial site from 2018 to 2019

11104_2021_4990_MOESM4_ESM.tif

Supplementary file4 (TIF 1853 KB) Effect of temperature and light on germination of fresh seeds of 11 species. Different uppercase and lowercase letters are indicate significant difference in light and dark, respectively, at 0.05 level for each species. *, ** and *** indicate a significant difference between light and dark at 0.05, 0.01 and 0.001 levels, respectively. The same below

11104_2021_4990_MOESM5_ESM.tif

Supplementary file5 (TIF 296 KB) Effect size for seed persistence with precipitation reduction versus control. Error bars are referring to 95% confidence intervals. No overlap of error bars with zero indicate that precipitation reduction significantly affect seed persistence compare with control, the value of effect size is greater or less than zero means a positive and negative effect, respectively

11104_2021_4990_MOESM6_ESM.tif

Supplementary file6 (TIF 301 KB) Effect size for seed persistence with precipitation addition versus control. Error bars are referring to 95% confidence intervals. No overlap of error bars with zero indicate that precipitation addition significantly affect seed persistence compare with control, the value of effect size is greater or less than zero means a positive and negative effect, respectively

11104_2021_4990_MOESM7_ESM.tif

Supplementary file7 (TIF 564 KB) Mean daily soil temperature under three levels of precipitation conditions from 2020 to 2021

Supplementary file8 (DOCX 17 KB)

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Chen, D., Chen, X., Jia, C. et al. Effects of precipitation and microorganisms on persistence of buried seeds: a case study of 11 species from the Loess Plateau of China. Plant Soil 467, 181–195 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-04990-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-04990-1

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