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Seed mass and germination in an alpine meadow on the eastern Tsinghai–Tibet plateau

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Abstract

In this study, we built up a database of 570 species from an alpine meadow on the eastern Tsinghai–Tibet plateau. We examined the correlation of seed mass and germination with phylogeny, habitat and altitude, and the relationship between seed mass and germination. We found that: habitats had no significant effects on seed mass and germinability, which was in accord with the former studies; there was a significant negative correlation between seed mass and altitude, as well as between germinability and altitude, which was opposite to most of the former studies; there was a significant negative correlation between seed mass and germinability, which was in contrast with other studies that have found a positive relationship, and seed mass could explain 24.1% of total variation in germinability; in GLM, family and genus accounted for 43.9% and 83.9% of total variation in seed mass, and 34.1% and 65.4% in germinability, respectively, thus, it was evident that seed mass and germinability were strongly related to phylogeny. We considered that seed mass and germination might be the result of both selective pressures over long-term ecological time and the constraints over long-standing evolutionary history of the taxonomic membership. We suggest that correlates of ecology and phylogeny should be taken into account in comparative studies on seed mass and germination among species.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Xuelin Chen and Yifeng Wang for identifying species and we are grateful to Shuqing Guo and WeiQi for their help with in collecting seeds. This study has been supported by the Chinese key project for nature science (90202009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, Lanzhou University, South Tianshui Road 222, Lanzhou, 730000, P.R. China

    Haiyan Bu, Xuelin Chen, Xiuli Xu, Kun Liu, Peng Jia & Guozhen Du

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  1. Haiyan Bu
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  2. Xuelin Chen
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  3. Xiuli Xu
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  4. Kun Liu
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  5. Peng Jia
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Correspondence to Guozhen Du.

Appendix

Appendix

The habitat, altitude and seed mass of species in an alpine meadow on the eastern Tibetan plateau. The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II (2003) was used to assign the affiliation of each species to higher levels. Habitat—(1) bottomland; (2) boskage; (3) north slope; (4) south slope; and (5) forest edge. Altitude—the height at which seed were collected. Seed mass—mean value per 100 seeds.

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Bu, H., Chen, X., Xu, X. et al. Seed mass and germination in an alpine meadow on the eastern Tsinghai–Tibet plateau. Plant Ecol 191, 127–149 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-006-9221-5

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