Germination season and watering regime, but not seed morph, affect life history traits in a cold desert diaspore-heteromorphic annual

Seed morph, abiotic conditions and time of germination can affect plant fitness, but few studies have tested their combined effects on plasticity of plant life history traits. Thus, we tested the hypothesis that seed morph, germination season and watering regime influence phenotypic expression of po...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	PloS one 2014-07, Vol.9 (7), p.e102018-e102018
Main Authors:	Lu, Juan J, Tan, Dun Y, Baskin, Jerry M, Baskin, Carol C
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Accumulation Arabidopsis Arabidopsis thaliana Autumn Biology and Life Sciences Brassicaceae Brassicaceae - anatomy & histology Brassicaceae - physiology Climate change Cold Dendrocalamus strictus Deserts Diaspore Ecology Ecology and Environmental Sciences Ecosystem Education Fitness Flowering Flowers & plants Fruits Gene expression Germination Grasslands Influence Laboratories Life cycle engineering Life cycles Life history Morphology Phenology Plants (botany) Precipitation Rain Rain and rainfall Rainfall Reproduction Seasons Seeds Seeds - anatomy & histology Seeds - physiology Soil sciences Spring (season) Summer Water - metabolism Winter
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Summary:	Seed morph, abiotic conditions and time of germination can affect plant fitness, but few studies have tested their combined effects on plasticity of plant life history traits. Thus, we tested the hypothesis that seed morph, germination season and watering regime influence phenotypic expression of post-germination life history traits in the diaspore-heteromorphic cold desert winter annual/spring ephemeral Diptychocarpus strictus. The two seed morphs were sown in watered and non-watered plots in late summer, and plants derived from them were watered or not-watered throughout the study. Seed morph did not affect phenology, growth and morphology, survival, dry mass accumulation and allocation or silique and seed production. Seeds in watered plots germinated in autumn (AW) and spring (SW) but only in spring for non-watered plots (SNW). A high percentage of AW, SW and SNW plants survived and reproduced, but flowering date and flowering period of autumn- vs. spring-germinated plants differed. Dry mass also differed with germination season/watering regime (AW > SW > SNW). Number of siliques and seeds increased with plant size (AW > SW > SNW), whereas percent dry mass allocated to reproduction was higher in small plants: SNW > SW > AW. Thus, although seed morph did not affect the expression of life history traits, germination season and watering regime significantly affected phenology, plant size and accumulation and allocation of biomass to reproduction. Flexibility throughout the life cycle of D. strictus is an adaptation to the variation in timing and amount of rainfall in its cold desert habitat.
ISSN:	1932-6203 1932-6203