Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T17:19:00.671Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Germination behaviour of forbs native to the southwestern United States following exposure to short-term seed bank conditions (−20°C)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2020

Alexandra E. Seglias ,
Jessamine Finch  and
Andrea T. Kramer
Alexandra E. Seglias*
Affiliation:
Program in Plant Biology and Conservation, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science and Action, Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, IL, USA
Jessamine Finch
Affiliation:
Program in Plant Biology and Conservation, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science and Action, Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, IL, USA
Andrea T. Kramer
Affiliation:
Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science and Action, Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, IL, USA
*
Author for correspondence: Alexandra Seglias, E-mail: alexandra.seglias@botanicgardens.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Seeds are increasingly being stored in seed banks for ex situ conservation, food security, and restoration reserves. Although it is hypothesized that seeds of many species can survive the dry, freezer conditions (−20°C) of seed banks for many years, shelf life is unknown for many species. In particular, changes to dormancy and germination requirements following freezer storage have not yet been studied extensively. To improve our understanding of how seed dormancy and germination respond to seed banking conditions, we evaluated seed of six restoration-priority species in the southwestern United States, which is a region of increasing restoration need. Germination tendencies of seeds that were and were not exposed to a −20°C treatment for 4–6 months were evaluated under 22 cold-moist stratification and incubation treatments to broadly assess changes to dormancy and germination requirements and speed. Direct or indirect (via interactions with stratification and/or incubation treatments) differences in dormancy breaking and germination were observed in seeds for four of the six species studied. Specifically, storage temperature accounted for differences in the final germination proportion, germination during stratification, and/or rate of germination in five of the six species. Notably, seeds of the one species that exhibit a combination of physiological and physical dormancy showed significant differences in all germination measures. However, while significant differences were found between seeds exposed to short-term seed bank storage and those that were not, these differences were small and may not be biologically meaningful, indicating that seed banking these species should not change how they are used for restoration or reintroduction purposes.

Keywords

ex situ conservationorthodox seedsrestorationseed bankingseed storage
Type
Research Paper
Information
Seed Science Research , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , June 2020 , pp. 81 - 91
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

Current address: Department of Research and Conservation, Denver Botanic Gardens, 909 York Street, Denver, CO, USA.

References

Barak, RS, Fant, JB, Kramer, AT and Skogen, KA (2015) Assessing the value of potential ‘native winners’ for restoration of cheatgrass-invaded habitat. Western North American Naturalist 75, 58–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baskin, CC and Baskin, JM (2014) Seeds: ecology, biogeography, and evolution of dormancy and germination (2nd edn). San Diego, CA, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Crawley, MJ (2013) The R book (2nd edn). West Sussex, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Google Scholar
de Casas, RR, Kovach, K, Dittmar, E, Barua, D, Barco, B and Donohue, K (2012) Seed after-ripening and dormancy determine adult life history independently of germination timing. New Phytologist 194, 868–879. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2012.04097.x.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Donohue, K, Dorn, L, Griffith, C, Kim, E, Aguilera, A, Polisetty, CR and Schmitt, J (2005) Environmental and genetic influences on the germination of Arabidopsis thaliana in the field. Evolution 59, 740. doi:10.1554/04-419.Google ScholarPubMed
FAO (2014) Genebank standards for plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (Rev. edn). Rome, FAO.Google Scholar
Faxitron X-Ray Corporation. Specimen radiography system.Google Scholar
Finch-Savage, WE and Leubner-Metzger, G (2006) Seed dormancy and the control of germination. The New Phytologist 171, 501–523. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2006.01787.x.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Giam, X, Bradshaw, CJA, Tan, HTW and Sodhi, NS (2010) Future habitat loss and the conservation of plant biodiversity. Biological Conservation 143, 1594–1602. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2010.04.019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godefroid, S, Van de Vyver, A, Massengo Kalenga, W, Handjila Minengo, G, Rose, C, Ngongo Luhembwe, M, Vanderborght, T and Mahy, G (2013) Germination capacity and seed storage behaviour of threatened metallophytes from the Katanga copper belt (DR Congo): implications for ex situ conservation. Plant Ecology and Evolution 146, 183–192. doi:10.5091/plecevo.2013.745.Google Scholar
Haidet, M and Olwell, P (2015) Seeds of success: a national seed banking program working to achieve long-term conservation goals. Natural Areas Journal 35, 165–173. doi:10.3375/043.035.0118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Havens, K, Kramer, AT and Guerrant, EO (2014) Getting plant conservation right (or not): the case of the United States. International Journal of Plant Sciences 175, 3–10. doi:10.1086/674103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hereford, R, Webb, RH and Graham, S (2002) Precipitation history of the Colorado Plateau Region, 1900–2000, USGS Fact Sheet 119-02, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hilli, A, Tillman-Sutela, E and Kauppi, A (2003) Germination of pretreated Scots pine seeds after long-term storage. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 33, 47–53. doi:10.1139/x02-155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jiménez-Alfaro, B, Silveira, FAO, Fidelis, A, Poschlod, P and Commander, LE (2016) Seed germination traits can contribute better to plant community ecology. Journal of Vegetation Science 27, 637–645. doi:10.1111/jvs.12375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Justice, OL and Bass, LN (1978) Principles and practices of seed storage. Baltimore, MD, USDA, National Agricultural Library.Google Scholar
Kramer, AT and Foxx, A (2016) Propagation Protocol for Production of Propagules (Seeds, Cutings, Poles, etc.) of Sphaeralcea parvifolia seeds. Chicago, IL, Chicago Botanic Garden – Research Glencoe.Google Scholar
Kramer, AT, Larkin, DJ and Fant, JB (2015) Assessing potential seed transfer zones for five forb species from the Great Basin Floristic Region, USA. Natural Areas Journal 35, 174–188. doi:10.3375/043.035.0119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larson, JE, Sheley, RL, Hardegree, SP, Doescher, PS and James, JJ (2015) Seed and seedling traits affecting critical life stage transitions and recruitment outcomes in dryland grasses. Journal of Applied Ecology 52, 199–209. doi:10.1111/1365-2664.12350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maunder, M, Havens, K, Guerrant, EO and Falk, DA (2004) Ex situ methods: a vital but underused set of conservation resources. pp. 3–20in Guerrant, EO Jr., Havens, K and Maunde, M (Eds), Ex situ plant conservation: supporting species survival in the wild. Washington, DC, Island Press.Google Scholar
McNair, JN, Sunkara, A and Frobish, D (2012) How to analyse seed germination data using statistical time-to-event analysis: non-parametric and semi-parametric methods. Seed Science Research 22, 77–95. doi:10.1017/S0960258511000547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merritt, DJ and Dixon, KW (2011) Restoration seed banks – a matter of scale. Science 332, 21–22. doi:10.1126/science.1203083.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meyer, SE, Kitchen, SG and Carlson, S (1995) Seed germination timing patterns in intermountain Penstemon (Scrophulariaceae). American Journal of Botany 82, 377–389.Google Scholar
Mira, S, Estrelles, E and González-Benito, ME (2015) Effect of water content and temperature on seed longevity of seven Brassicaceae species after 5 years of storage. Plant Biology 17, 153–162. doi:10.1111/plb.12183.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Percival Scientific Inc. Intellus Environmental Controller.Google Scholar
Pérez-García, F, González-Benito, ME and Gómez-Campo, C (2007) High viability recorded in ultra-dry seeds of 37 species of Brassicaceae after almost 40 years of storage. Seed Science and Technology 35, 143–153. doi:10.15258/sst.2007.35.1.13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RBG Kew (2016) State of the world's plants 2016.Google Scholar
R Core Team (2016) R: a language and environment for statistical computing.Google Scholar
Riebkes, JL, Barak, RS and Kramer, AT (2015) Evaluating seed viability in prairie forbs: a test of three methods. Native Plants Journal 16, 96–106. doi:10.3368/npj.16.2.96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (2018) version 7.1. http://data.kew.org/sid/.Google Scholar
Seglias, AE, Williams, E, Bilge, A and Kramer, AT (2018) Phylogeny and source climate impact seed dormancy and germination of restoration-relevant forb species. PLoS ONE 13, e0191931. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0191931.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
SEINet – Arizona Chapter (2017) http//:swbiodiversity.org/seinet/index.php.Google Scholar
St. Clair, JB, Kilkenny, FF, Johnson, RC, Shaw, NL and Weaver, G (2013) Genetic variation in adaptive traits and seed transfer zones for Pseudoroegneria spicata (bluebunch wheatgrass) in the northwestern United States. Evolutionary Applications 6, 933–948. doi:10.1111/eva.12077.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Therneau, T (2020) A Package for Survival Analysis in R. R package version 3.1-11, https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=survival.Google Scholar
Tuckett, RE, Merritt, DJ, Hay, FR, Hopper, SD and Dixon, KW (2010) Dormancy, germination and seed bank storage: a study in support of ex situ conservation of macrophytes of southwest Australian temporary pools. Freshwater Biology 5, 1118–1129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, T, Adams, CR, MacDonald, G and Pérez, H (2017) Florida ecotype Elliott's lovegrass (Eragrostis elliottii) germination testing for use in non-optimal restoration sites: the role of season and seed vigor. Native Plants Journal 18, 114–125. doi:10.3368/npj.18.2.114.Google Scholar
US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) (2015) Technical protocol for the collection, study, and conservation of seeds from native plant species for Seeds of Success.Google Scholar
van Slageren, MW (2003) The Millennium Seed Bank: building partnerships in arid regions for the conservation of wild species. Journal of Arid Environments 54, 195–201. doi:10.1006/jare.2001.0879.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagmann, K, Hautekèete, NC, Piquot, Y, Meunier, C, Schmitt, SE and Van Dijk, H (2012) Seed dormancy distribution: explanatory ecological factors. Annals of Botany 110, 1205–19. doi:10.1093/aob/mcs194.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walters, C (2004) Guidelines for seed storage, pp. 442–453. in Ex situ plant conservation: supporting species survival in the wild. Washington, DC, Island Press.Google Scholar
Walters, C, Wheeler, LM and Grotenhuis, JM (2005) Longevity of seeds stored in a genebank: species characteristics. Seed Science Research 15, 1–20. doi:10.1079/SSR2004195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wesche, K, Pietsch, M, Ronnenberg, K, Undrakh, R and Hensen, I (2006) Germination of fresh and frost-treated seeds from dry Central Asian steppes. Seed Science Research 16, 123–136. doi:10.1079/SSR2006239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, A, Fant, J, Havens, K, Skinner, M and Kramer, AT (2018) Restoring species diversity: assessing capacity in the U.S. native plant industry. Restoration Ecology 26, 605–611. doi:10.1111/rec.12705.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winkler, DE, Backer, DM, Belnap, J, Bradford, JB, Butterfield, BJ, Copeland, SM, Duniway, MC, Faist, AM, Fick, SE, Jensen, SL, Kramer, AT, Mann, R, Massatti, RT, McCormick, ML, Munson, SM, Olwell, P, Parr, SD, Pfennigwerth, AA, Pilmanis, AM, Richardson, BA, Samuel, E, See, K, Young, KE and Reed, SC (2018) Beyond traditional ecological restoration on the Colorado Plateau. Restoration Ecology 26, 1055–1060. doi:10.1111/rec.12876.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, TE, Doherty, K and Padgett, W (2015) Development of native plant materials for restoration and rehabilitation of Colorado Plateau ecosystems. Natural Areas Journal 35, 134–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Seglias et al. Supplementary Materials

Seglias et al. Supplementary Materials

Download Seglias et al. Supplementary Materials(File)
File 45.7 KB