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1.
Summary Seedling recruitment in salt marsh plant communities is generally precluded in dense vegetation by competition from adults, but is also relatively rare in disturbance-generated bare space. We examined the constraints on seedling recruitment in New England salt marsh bare patches. Under typical bare patch conditions seed germination is severely limited by high substrate salinities. We examined the germination requirements of common high marsh plants and found that except for one notably patch-dependent fugitive species, the germination of high marsh plants is strongly inhibited by the high soil salinities routinely encountered in natural bare patches. Watering high marsh soil in the greenhouse to alleviate salt stress resulted in the emergence of up to 600 seedlings/225 cm2. The vast majority of this seed bank consisted of Juncus gerardi, the only common high marsh plant with high seed set. We tested the hypothesis that salt stress limits seedling contributions to marsh patch secondary succession in the field. Watering bare patches with fresh water partially alleviated patch soil salinities and dramatically increased both the emergence and survival of seedlings. Our results show that seedling recruitment by high marsh perennial turfs is limited by high soil salinities and that consequently their population dynamics are determined primarily by clonal growth processes. In contrast, populations of patch-dependent fugitive marsh plants which cannot colonize vegetatively are likely governed by spatially and temporally unpredictable windows of low salinities in bare patches.  相似文献   

2.
Question: We investigated colonisation filters in early plant community development on a glacial outwash plain. We asked if these were related to seed limitation or to a lack of safe sites, if topographical heterogeneity affected species patchiness and how species life cycles influence successional trajectories. Location: An outwash plain (Skeiðarársandur) in southeast Iceland. Methods: We identified surface heterogeneity at two different scales, ca. 10–15 cm (larger stones and established plants) and ca. 50 m (shallow depressions representing dry river beds) at two study sites. We quantified species cover, flowering plant density, seed production, seed rain, seed bank density, seedling emergence and seedling survival from June 2005 to June 2007 for the whole plant community, and measured seed production for five species. Results: Mean vegetation cover was <2.5% at the sites. Low emergence rates and high seedling mortality were the two main recruitment filters. Only 1.4% of seedlings emerging in 2005 survived into the 2007 growing season. Topographical heterogeneity had little effect on plant colonisation. High annual variation was recorded, and the two study sites (ca. 2 km apart) differed in their colonisation success. Of the five species, establishment of Cerastium alpinum and Silene uniflora was most limited by lack of seeds, whereas establishment of Luzula spicata, Poa glauca and Rumex acetosella was most limited by safe sites. Conclusions: We conclude that colonisation processes and patterns in early primary succession on Skeiðarársandur were largely influenced by stochastic factors.  相似文献   

3.
The role of seed bank, seed rain, and regeneration from seedlings and sprouts after swidden agriculture was compared in 5-, 10- and 20-year-old secondary forest and in a primary forest in Bragantina, Pará, Brazil. The seed bank (0–5 cm soil depth) was largest in the 5-year-old forest (1190 ± 284 seeds m−2) and decreased nearly ten-fold with age to 137 ± 19 seeds m−2 in the primary forest. The highest seed rain was in the 5-year-old forest (883 ± 230 seeds m−2 year−1) and the least in the primary forest (220 ± 80 seeds m−2 year−1). Large plants (≥5 cm dbh) had more individuals and species that regenerated from sprouts than from seeds and the most abundant tree species in the secondary forest stands of all ages appear to be maintained by sprouting. The smaller individuals (≥1 m tall, <5 cm dbh) in the 5-year-old forest were mainly from sprouts, but those in the older secondary forests originated mainly from seeds. These results show that at the beginning of succession, although many species can be introduced to swidden fallow from seed bank and seed rain, it is the sprout that is the main source of recruits of primary forest species in secondary forests in Bragantina.  相似文献   

4.
5.
Rodent seed predation and seedling recruitment in mesic grassland   总被引:11,自引:0,他引:11  
Seedling recruitment of two grasses (Arrhenatherum elatius and Festuca rubra) and two herbs (Centaurea nigra and Rumex acetosa) was measured in areas with and without rodents to which seeds of each species were sown at three seed densities (1000, 10,000 and 50,000 seeds m−2) in two seasons (spring and autumn 1995). Seed removal was measured for 10-day periods and the fate of seedlings was followed for 15 months after sowing. The proportion of seed removed ranged from 6 to 85% and increased with increasing seed density for each species. Rodents had no effect on seedling emergence or survival in the spring sowing. In the autumn sowing, rodents reduced seedling emergence of all four species sown at 1000 and 10,000 seeds m−2 but had no impact at 50,000 seeds m−2, presumably because of microsite limitation. We suggest the difference between spring and autumn arose because emergence was seed limited in autumn but microsite limited in spring; microsite availability was higher in autumn because a summer drought killed plants, reduced plant biomass and opened up the sward. Fifteen months after the autumn sowing, fewer A. elatius and C. nigra seedlings survived on plots exposed to rodents. This result reflected not only the reduced seedling emergence but also increased seedling mortality (seedling herbivory) in sites exposed to rodents. In contrast, F. rubra and R.acteosa showed density-dependent seedling survival which compensated for initial differences in seedling emergence, so that no effect of rodents remained after 15 months. The results suggest that rodent seed predation and seedling herbivory exert strong effects on seedling recruitment of A.elatius and C. nigra when recruitment conditions are favourable (conditions that lead to high microsite availability) and may contribute to both species being maintained at low densities in the grassland. The results also demonstrate that highly significant impacts of rodent seed predation at the seedling emergence stage can disappear by the time of plant maturation. Received: 2 March 1998 / Accepted: 28 September 1998  相似文献   

6.
Abstract. Post-fire seed germination, seedling mortality and seed banks were investigated in scrub-heath (kwongan) in SW Australia. Study species included herbaceous and woody, obligate seeders and resprouters in two non-bradysporous but significant plant families (Restionaceae and Epacridaceae). In all species, seedlings were recruited only in the first autumn-spring after fire and occurred in similar densities as the estimated germinable annual seed input. Seedlings were absent from unburnt vegetation. Although most species retained some residual seeds after fire, tests (excised embryo culture) indicated that a negligible number of seeds were germinable. Regardless of fire response or species, there appeared to be a large loss of seeds each year and in most cases, only a small proportion of the annual seed production was used in post-fire recovery of plants. Based on seedling: parent ratios, all species had the capacity to reconstitute parent densities from germinants in the first year after fire, but high seedling mortality and no further recruitment resulted in less seedlings than replacements for four resprouter Restionaceae and three Epacridaceae (all obligate seeders) at the end of the third year after fire.  相似文献   

7.
Seed mass and seedling dimensions in relation to seedling establishment   总被引:10,自引:0,他引:10  
R. Kidson  M. Westoby 《Oecologia》2000,125(1):11-17
Several experiments have shown that seedlings from larger-seeded species are better able to survive various hazards during establishment. Previous work has suggested a general mechanism might underpin this outcome. Larger-seeded species might tend to mobilize their metabolic resources over a longer period into the autotrophically functioning structures of the seedling. Consequently relatively more resources would remain uncommitted at any given time during the early period of the seedling’s growth, and available to support respiration during carbon deficit. An important aspect of this larger-seed-later-commitment mechanism would be that at a given time, larger-seeded species would hold more resources uncommitted not just absolutely, but relative to the functional seedling structures that needed to be supported. Here we quantify, across a wide range of phanerocotylar species, an allometric pattern that supports the generality of a larger-seed-later-commitment mechanism as an explanation for superior performance by larger-seeded species in face of the hazards of seedling establishment. Larger-seeded species allocate relatively less to cotyledon area, reflecting the initial functional size of the seedling, and relatively more to dry mass per unit area of cotyledon, reflecting stored metabolic reserves. The shift in relative allocation is progressive, rather than seedlings falling into discrete morphological types. The allometry is similar whether considered as correlated evolutionary divergences (phylogenetically independent contrasts) or as correlation across present-day species. Received: 7 April 1999 / Accepted: 29 March 2000  相似文献   

8.
Plant colonization can be limited by lack of seeds or by factors that reduce establishment. The role of seed limitation in community assembly is being increasingly recognized, but in early primary succession, establishment failure is still considered more important. We studied the factors limiting colonization on the foreland of Coleman Glacier, Washington, USA, to determine the importance of seed and establishment limitation during primary succession. We also evaluated the effects of seed predation, drought, and existing vegetation on establishment. We planted seeds of seven species into plots of four different ages and found evidence that both seed and establishment limitation are strong in early succession. We also found that seed and establishment limitation both remained high in later stages of succession. Seed predation reduced establishment for most species and some evidence suggested that drought and existing vegetation also limit establishment. Because both dispersal and establishment failure restrict colonization in recently exposed habitat, late-seral forest species may have a difficult time migrating upward in response to global climate change. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.  相似文献   

9.
Green  J.J.  Newbery  D.M. 《Plant Ecology》2002,162(2):169-187
In the southern part of Korup National Park, Cameroon, the mast fruitingtree Microberlinia bisulcata occurs as a codominant ingroves of ectomycorrhizal Caesalpiniaceae within a mosaic of otherwisespecies-rich lowland rain forest. To estimate the amount of carbon andnutrientsinvested in reproduction during a mast fruiting event, and the consequentialseed and seedling survival, three related field studies were made in 1995.Theseprovided a complete seed and seedling budget for the cohort. Seed productionwasestimated by counting woody pods on the forest floor. Trees produced on average26,000 (range 0–92,000) seeds/tree, with a dry mass of 16.6kg/tree. Seeds were contained in woody pods of mass 307kg/tree. Dry mass production of pods and seeds was 1034 kgha–1, equivalent to over half (55%) of annual leaflitterfall for this species, and contained 13% of the nitrogen and 21% of thephosphorus in annual leaf litterfall. Seed and young-seedling mortality wasinvestigated with open quadratsand cages to exclude vertebrate predators, at two distances from the parenttree. The proportion of seeds on the forest floor which disappeared in thefirst6 wk after dispersal was 84%, of which 26.5% was due to likelyvertebrate removal, 36% to rotting, and 21.5% to other causes. Vertebratepredation was greater close to the stem than 5 m beyond the crown(41 vs 12% of seeds disappearing) where the seed shadow was less dense.Previousstudies have demonstrated an association between mast years at Korup and highdry-season radiation before flowering, and have shown lower leaf-litterfallphosphorus concentrations following mast fruiting. The emerging hypothesis isthat mast fruiting is primarily imposed by energy limitation for fruitproduction, but phosphorus supply and vertebrate predation are regulatingfactors. Recording the survival of naturally-regeneratingM. bisulcata seedlings (6-wk stage) showed that 21% ofseedlings survived to 31 mo. A simple three-stage recruitment model wasconstructed. Mortality rates were initially high and peaked again in each ofthenext two dry seasons, with smaller peaks in the two intervening wet seasons,these latter coinciding with annual troughs in radiation. The very poorrecruitment of M. bisulcata trees in Korup, demonstratedinprevious investigations, appears not to be due to a limitation in seed oryoung-seedling supply, but rather by factors operating at theestablished-seedling stage.  相似文献   

10.
Abstract. Seed demography of three co-occurring Acer species in an old-growth mixed deciduous forest in Japan was studied. Almost all of the seeds of A. mono germinated in the first spring, while those of A. palmatum var. amoenum showed a delay in germination of almost one year. A. rufinerve showed a rather opportunistic germination habit. Both A. palmatum var. amoenum and A. rufinerve form short-term persistent seed banks, but without input of newly dispersed seeds they may become extinct in about one year. The seed bank for these two species is not as significant as for a typical pioneer species, and the seedling bank is important for all three species. Only a small proportion of the dispersed propagules contained viable embryos, mainly due to pollination failure or abortion (A. mono and A. palmatum var. amoenum), and invertebrate predation (A. rufinerve). For all three species, larger seed crops had a higher percentage of viable seeds. Even for these relatively small, wind-dispersed seeds, the predation pressure was very high. A large part of the dispersed seeds was eaten by wood mice during the first winter (30–80 %). Estimation from the 5-yr average of seed dispersal and seedling emergence showed that only 7–16 % of the dispersed viable seeds succeeded in germinating.  相似文献   

11.
Temperature requirements for the breaking of seed dormancy and germination inPrimula sieboldii E. Morren and the annual surface-soil temperature regime in one of its natural habitats were investigated in order to clarify the germination responses determining the seedling emergence seasonality of the species. In a grassland nature reserve in an abandoned flood plain of the Arakawa River, natural seedling emergence of the species was shown to be restricted to mid- to late-spring before the closure of seasonal vegetational gaps, when the daily mean soil surface temperature reached about 15°C, accompanied by large daily fluctuations of about 10°C. Mature seeds collected in late June were never able to germinate at any constant temperature in the range of 8–40°C unless they had been previously subjected to moist-chilling treatment. The proportion of seeds which were released from dormancy increased with increasing duration of the moist-chilling treatment at 2°C, 70–85% of seeds becoming germinable at 16–28°C after 12 weeks of pretreatment at 2°C. The thermal time required for the germination of the thus-pretreated seed population was 905–1690 Kh with a base temperature of around 5°C. Fluctuating temperatures between 24°C and 16 or 12°C had a remarkable dormancy-breaking effect, inducing considerably quick germination in most of the seeds previously subjected to 2°C moist-chilling for 8 weeks.  相似文献   

12.
Due to the high content of viable seeds, topsoil is usually spread on ground left bare during railway and motorway construction to facilitate the regeneration of vegetation cover. However, during handling of the topsoil, seeds are often buried deeply and they cannot germinate or the seedlings cannot emerge from depth. This study experimentally explores the predictive value of seed mass for seed germination, mortality and seedling emergence at different burial depths for 13 common annual species in semiarid Mediterranean environments. We separate the effect of burial depth on germination and emergence by means of two experiments. In the germination experiment, five replicates of 20 seeds for each species were buried at depths ranging from 0 to 4 cm under greenhouse conditions. Germinated and empty or rotten seeds were counted after 8 weeks. In the emergence experiment, five replicates of four newly-germinated seeds per species were buried at the same depths under controlled conditions and emergence was recorded after 3 weeks. The effect of burial depth on percentage of germination and seedling emergence was dependent on seed size. Although all species showed a decrease in germination with burial depth, this decrease was greater for small-than large-seeded species. Percentage of emergence was positively related to seed mass but negatively related to burial depth. Seed mortality was higher for small-than large-seeded species, but there was no general effect of burial depth on this variable. Thus, the current practice of spreading 30 cm deep layers of topsoil in post-construction restoration projects is unadvisable. In this restoration scenario, thinner layers of topsoil should be used to achieve the maximum potential of the topsoil for germination and seedling establishment.  相似文献   

13.
The relationships between seedling emergence and litter cover were studied in the earliest successional stage of a plant community. During a period of 3 years, changes in vegetation cover and species composition were assessed on three permanent quadrats with virgin sandy soil substrates A successional pattern from summer annual grasses to winter annual herbacoeus plants to biennial and perennial plants was confirmed, and invasion and replacement of the component species were conspicuous. The spatial distributions of seedlings and litter were heterogeneous in winter, and some patches consisting of both seedlings and litter were observed. There was a strong positive correlation between distribution patterns of seedlings and litter; seedling density increased with increasing litter cover. The results suggest that the litter cover of the previous stage plays an imporrant role in promoting successional changes in the early stage of plant succession.  相似文献   

14.
When studying congeneric species, it is of reasonable importance to understand different ecophysiological performances which might determine the distribution of species in habitats with different natural resources. Styrax ferrugineus is exclusive and well adapted to the Brazilian Cerrado sensu stricto (s. str.); S. camporum is widely distributed in the Cerrado sensu lato (s. l.) areas, with young trees being observed at the edge of cerradão and other vegetation fragments; and S. pohlii occurs in permanently waterlogged soils of the Cerrado region, such as those of riparian forests. We tested the hypothesis that the higher the soil water content in the physiognomic gradient of the vegetation, the higher is the germination success of S. pohlii, but the lower is the germination success of S. ferrugineus. We also discuss whether gap conditions inside a cerradão fragment imply a high germination rates of seeds of S. camporum. Seeds from each of the three species were buried within nylon bags containing soil from the respective sites. Burial occurred in a Cerrado s. str., in understory and gap conditions of a cerradão, and in the understory of a riparian forest fragment, and lasted for 60, 120, 180 and 240 days, respectively, after the fruit dispersal time of each of the three species. After 60 days, a relationship was found showing that the percentage of germinated seeds diminished, and the percentage of damaged seeds increased as soil water content increased (Cerrado s. str. < cerradão gap < cerradão understory ? riparian forest). S. camporum still showed viable seeds 60 days after burial (DAB), and germinated seeds 120 DAB, indicating that it needed a longer time to germinate, which might be associated to its thicker seed coat, in relation to the other two species. The germination performance of each of the three species was the same in the gap and understory conditions of the cerradão. The higher concentration of adult S. camporum plants at the edge of vegetation fragments is not related to a particular high germination performance and seedling establishment.  相似文献   

15.
    
The masting phenomenon along with its accompanying suite of seedling adaptive traits has been well studied in forest trees but has rarely been examined in desert shrubs. Blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima) is a regionally dominant North American desert shrub whose seeds are produced in mast events and scatter-hoarded by rodents. We followed the fate of seedlings in intact stands vs. small-scale disturbances at four contrasting sites for nine growing seasons following emergence after a mast year. The primary cause of first-year mortality was post-emergence cache excavation and seedling predation, with contrasting impacts at sites with different heteromyid rodent seed predators. Long-term establishment patterns were strongly affected by rodent activity in the weeks following emergence. Survivorship curves generally showed decreased mortality risk with age but differed among sites even after the first year. There were no detectable effects of inter-annual precipitation variability or site climatic differences on survival. Intraspecific competition from conspecific adults had strong impacts on survival and growth, both of which were higher on small-scale disturbances, but similar in openings and under shrub crowns in intact stands. This suggests that adult plants preempted soil resources in the interspaces. Aside from effects on seedling predation, there was little evidence for facilitation or interference beneath adult plant crowns. Plants in intact stands were still small and clearly juvenile after nine years, showing that blackbrush forms cohorts of suppressed plants similar to the seedling banks of closed forests. Seedling banks function in the absence of a persistent seed bank in replacement after adult plant death (gap formation), which is temporally uncoupled from masting and associated recruitment events. This study demonstrates that the seedling establishment syndrome associated with masting has evolved in desert shrublands as well as in forests.  相似文献   

16.
This paper examines the effects of sheep and insect grazing on the generation of natural gaps in turf and the establishment of seedlings therein. The site is on an old field on limestone. There were five sheep grazing treatments: ungrazed, and grazed briefly in spring, briefly in autumn, in autumn or in summer and autumn. The first three of these treatments also contained plots in which insecticide was applied regularly during the growing season. Pins of increasing size (1.6 mm–12.8 mm diameter) were lowered at grid intersections in permanent quadrats to record gap type and the occurrence of seedlings on seven dates over 15 months.Heavily-grazed plots had more bare ground in spring and more herb seedlings established in them. Seedlings of annual species of Bromus were able to establish in gaps (bare ground and litter) of smaller size than was required by herb seedlings (which had much smaller seeds). The use of an insecticide increased seedling establishment in October in ungrazed and in spring-grazed paddocks but decreased it in autumn-grazed paddocks. This may indicate the greater importance of insect herbivory in making gaps in the matted sward of autumn-grazed plots.Seedlings which established in October 1986 and March 1987 were more likely to die than those establishing earlier in 1986. This may be because of winter-kill and especially vigorous spring vegetation growth respectively. Seedling mortality was not affected by gap size or grazing treatment (unless such effects operated before we detected the seedlings).  相似文献   

17.
Q.Y. Li  W.Z. Zhao  H.Y. Fang 《Plant Ecology》2006,185(2):191-198
A greenhouse experiment was conducted to test the effects of sand burial depth and seed mass on seedling emergence and growth of Nitraria sphaerocarpa. Seeds of Nitraria sphaerocarpa were sorted into three size-classes (large, medium, small) and artificially buried at 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 cm depths in plastic pots filled with unsterilized sand. In the seven treatments, the percent emergence, seedling mass and seedling height, significantly affected by both burial depth and seed size, were highest at the optimal burial depth of 2 cm burial depth, and decreased with increasing burial depth in each seed size-class. Although seedling mass was usually greatest for large seeds and least for small seeds at each burial depth, little difference was observed in seedling height at shallow burial depths of 0–3 cm. In each seed size-class, with increasing burial depth, both root-mass ratio and aboveground stem-mass ratio decreased, while belowground stem-mass ratio increased. In each burial depth, with decreasing seed size, belowground stem-mass ratio increased, while root-mass ratio decreased.  相似文献   

18.
    
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19.
To study of seed and seedling characteristics, seeds of the Himalayan Hornbeam (Carpinus viminea Wall.) were collected from low and high-elevation sites during the peak maturation period. Paired t-tests indicated that seed weight, percentage of sound seeds, and germination were significantly greater for high-elevation seeds whereas seed moisture (%) was low. Seedling growth performance was better for high-elevation seeds than for those from low elevation. This indicates that environmental conditions at high elevation may favour germination and seedling growth of the species.  相似文献   

20.
Forbis TA  Larmore J  Addis E 《Oecologia》2004,138(1):112-121
Disturbances often facilitate seedling establishment, and can change the species composition of a community by increasing recruitment of disturbance-adapted species. To understand the effects of pocket gopher disturbances on alpine seedling dynamics, we examined the gopher disturbances effects on seedling emergence and survival on gopher disturbances 0 to 5 years old. In contrast to results from most other ecosystems, these recently created gopher mounds had lower seedling emergence and survival rates than undisturbed areas. A lack of correlation between species abundances on gopher mounds and undisturbed sites in one of the two communities studied suggested that a suite of disturbance-adapted species recruited onto the mounds. To explain low seedling emergence on recent gopher mounds, we quantified gopher mound seed banks and studied recruitment in a site with mounds that ranged from 0 to >20 years old. Seed numbers in first-year gopher mound soils were extremely low relative to undisturbed soils, and this pattern was mirrored in seedling establishment patterns over the long term. Gopher disturbance depressed seedling emergence density for the first 5 years. Subsequently, emergence density increased until at least 20 years following the disturbance. Emergence on disturbances more than 20 years old was higher than on undisturbed sites. Therefore, gopher disturbances probably facilitate seedling establishment in alpine dry and moist meadow; however, this process takes place over decades.  相似文献   

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