Abstract
Background and aims
Seed dormancy-break via cold stratification is of fundamental importance for plant adaptation to environmental conditions and response to climate change through timing germination, seedling emergence and consequently community dynamics. Although cold stratification requirements for dormancy break vary among species, it is not known if this variation is determined by the environmental conditions experienced by seeds or by differences among species.
Methods
We determined the soil moisture content and duration of cold stratification required for seed dormancy-break of species from alpine and desert habitats (soil moisture content: 20 and 18 species from alpine and desert habitats, respectively; duration: 16 and 16 species from the alpine and desert, respectively), and examined the correlation between environmental conditions (soil moisture content and duration of cold stratification) required for dormancy-break and seed traits.
Results
Seed germination increased and then decreased as soil moisture content or duration of cold stratification increased. The optimal and critical soil moisture content for seed dormancy-break were higher for alpine species than desert species. A positive correlation between optimal soil moisture content and seed shape was found. However, the duration of cold stratification required for dormancy-break was not related to habitat, seed mass or seed shape.
Conclusions
Our results suggest that soil moisture content rather than duration of cold stratification resulting from climate change could affect seed germination and consequently seedling emergence and establishment, especially for desert species.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Professor Carol Baskin and Professor Sichong Chen for their critical reviews and constructive suggestions on this manuscript. This study was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFC0507702), the Chinese Academy of Sciences Strategic Priority Research Program (XDA26020202), the Gansu Provincial Science and Technology Projects (18JR2TA023), the National Natural Science Fund (31672473, 31702164), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (lzujbky-2021-it03).
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Xiaowen Hu conceived the topic. Dali Chen, Zhen Yuan, Xinping Luo, Lingjie Yang, Xianglai Chen, Zuxin Zhang and Jingjing Wang 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.
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Supplementary Information
Fig. S1.
Phylogenetic relatedness among alpine and desert species used to determine the critical and optimal soil moisture content, and critical and optimal duration of cold stratification, for seed dormancy-break. (PNG 280 kb)
Fig. S2.
Mean germination percentage of alpine species at 10/20 °C (L/D, 12/12 h) in response to soil moisture content during cold stratification. Different letters indicate significance at the level of 0.05. MQ and HZ in parentheses represent the seed collection sites, which refers to Maqu and Hezuo station, respectively. (PNG 115 kb)
Fig. S3.
Mean germination percentage of desert species at 15/25 °C (L/D, 12/12 h) in response to soil moisture content during cold stratification. Different letters indicate significance at the level of 0.05. (PNG 92 kb)
Fig. S4.
Mean germination percentage of alpine species at 10/20 °C (L/D, 12/12 h) in response to duration of cold stratification. Different letters indicate significance at the level of 0.05. MQ and HZ in parentheses represent the seed collection sites, which refers to Maqu and Hezuo station, respectively. (PNG 83 kb)
Fig. S5.
Mean germination percentage of desert species at 15/25 °C (L/D, 12/12 h) in response to duration of cold stratification. Different letters indicate significance at the level of 0.05. (PNG 80 kb)
Fig. S6.
Mean daily soil moisture content of alpine and desert sites. The soil moisture content of 5 cm underground at Maqu, Hezuo and Miqin was determined using a LoggerNet (Campbell Scientific, Inc., Logan, USA) every day from December 2019 to May 2021. The soil moisture content of alpine sites was defined as the average of Maqu and Hezuo. (PNG 41 kb)
Fig. S7.
The optimal soil moisture content during cold stratification for seed dormancy-break of three species by using second method.MQ and HZ represent the seed collection sites, which refers to Maqu and Hezuo station, respectively. (PNG 27 kb)
Fig. S8.
Mean daily temperature of alpine and desert sites. The temperature of 5 cm underground at Maqu, Hezuo and Miqin was determined using a LoggerNet (Campbell Scientific, Inc., Logan, USA) every day from December 2019 to May 2021. The temperature of alpine sites was defined as the average of Maqu and Hezuo. (PNG 43 kb)
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Chen, D., Yuan, Z., Luo, X. et al. Cold stratification requirements for seed dormancy-break differ in soil moisture content but not duration for alpine and desert species. Plant Soil 471, 393–407 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-05212-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-05212-4