Nondormant Acorns Show Higher Seed Dispersal Effectiveness Than Dormant Ones

Forests

Yueqin Yang¹  Xianfeng Yi² 

[1] College of Agriculture, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471003, China;College of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, Qufu 273165, China;

关键词: seed germination;    dormancy;    trade-off;    seed dispersal;    seedling establishment;   

DOI  :  10.3390/f13060881

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Seed dormancy has been thought to be an important survival strategy to tune the seed dispersal timing. Although a theoretical trade-off between seed dormancy and dispersal is often proposed, empirical field evidence of the trade-off between seed dormancy, spatial dispersal, and seedling recruitment is still lacking. Here, we tracked seed dispersal of several Fagaceae species exhibiting different levels of dormancy both in artificial enclosures and in the field. We presented evidence that oak species with nondormant acorns rather than those bearing dormant species exhibit reduced spatial dispersal. Despite the empirical evidence that seed germination is negatively correlated with spatial dispersal, nondormancy rather than dormancy showed higher seed dispersal effectiveness, demonstrating a negative correlation between seed dormancy and dispersal fitness. Our study, using the oak-rodent system, may provide solid evidence of a dispersal–germination trade-off between spatial and temporal correlation, highlighting the ecological role of seed germination schedule in seed dispersal and life-history evolution.

【 授权许可】

Unknown