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- Title
Effects of increased precipitation on the life history of spring- and autumn-germinated plants of the cold desert annual Erodium oxyrhynchum (Geraniaceae).
- Authors
Chen, Yanfeng; Shi, Xiang; Zhang, Lingwei; Baskin, Jerry M; Baskin, Carol C; Liu, Huiliang; Zhang, Daoyuan
- Abstract
Future increased precipitation in cold desert ecosystems may impact annual/ephemeral plant species that germinate in both spring and autumn. Our primary aim was to compare the life history characteristics of plants from spring-germinating (SG) and autumn-germinating (AG) seeds of Erodium oxyrhynchum. Plants in field plots with simulated increases in precipitation of 0, 30 and 50 % in spring and summer were monitored to determine seedling survival, phenology, plant size, seed production and biomass accumulation and allocation. Germination characteristics were determined in the laboratory for seeds produced by plants in all increased precipitation treatments. Increased precipitation in spring significantly improved survival of seedlings from SG and AG seeds, but survival was less for AG than SG. An increase in precipitation increased the number of seeds per plant for both SG and AG, but AG produced more seeds per plant than SG. With increased precipitation, percentage of dormant seeds from SG increased significantly, while that of AG decreased slightly. Our study suggests that with increased spring and summer rainfall AG will produce an increased number of nondormant seeds that could germinate in autumn and SG an increased number of dormant seeds that become part of the soil seed bank. However, ability of some seeds to germinate in autumn and others in spring will be maintained as long as soil moisture is limited in autumn.
- Subjects
DESERT plants; LIFE history theory; SOIL seed banks; METEOROLOGICAL precipitation; AUTUMN; PLANT size
- Publication
AoB Plants, 2019, Vol 11, Issue 2, pN.PAG
- ISSN
2041-2851
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/aobpla/plz004