Seed dormancy-life form profile for 358 species from the Xishuangbanna seasonal tropical rainforest, Yunnan Province, China compared to world database

Qinying Lan, Shouhua Yin, Huiyin He, Yunhong Tan, Qiang Liu, Yongmei Xia, Bin Wen, Carol C. Baskin, Jerry M. Baskin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Seed dormancy profiles are available for the major vegetation regions/types on earth. These were constructed using a composite of data from locations within each region. Furthermore, the proportion of species with nondormant (ND) seeds and the five classes of dormancy is available for each life form in each region. Using these data, we asked: will the results be the same if many species from a specific area as opposed to data compiled from many locationsare considered? Germination was tested for fresh seeds of 358 species in 95 families from the Xishuangbanna seasonal tropical rainforest (XSTRF): 177 trees, 66 shrubs, 57 vines and 58 herbs. Seeds of 12.3% of the species were ND, and 0.3, 14.8, 60.6, 12.0 and 0% of the species had morphological (MD), morphophysiological (MPD), physiological (PD), physical (PY), and combinational (PY + PD) dormancy, respectively. PD was more important than ND in all life forms, PY was highest in shrubs, MD was not important in any life form and MPD was most common for herb and vines. The seed dormancy profile for XSTRF differs considerably from the composite profile for this vegetation type worldwide, most obviously in ND being much lower and PD much higher in XSTRF.

Original languageEnglish
Article number4674
JournalScientific Reports
Volume8
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Author(s).

Funding

We would like to thank Sheng Peng, Chunyan Fang, AnXiang Shi and Xinming Li, the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, for help with seed collection, seed germination and equipment management. This study was financially supported by funds from the Knowledge Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KSCXZ-SW-117) and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2005DKA21006).

FundersFunder number
Ministry of Science and Technology, China2005DKA21006
Chinese Academy of SciencesKSCXZ-SW-117
Chinese Academy of Sciences

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General

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