Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T04:00:28.872Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Seed germination of mudflat species responds differently to prior exposure to hypoxic (flooded) environments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2020

Shyam S. Phartyal Open the ORCID record for Shyam S. Phartyal [Opens in a new window] ,
Sergey Rosbakh Open the ORCID record for Sergey Rosbakh [Opens in a new window]  and
Peter Poschlod Open the ORCID record for Peter Poschlod [Opens in a new window]
Shyam S. Phartyal*
Affiliation:
Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany School of Ecology and Environment Studies, Nalanda University, Rajgir, India
Sergey Rosbakh
Affiliation:
Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
Peter Poschlod
Affiliation:
Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
*
Author for correspondence: Shyam S. Phartyal, E-mail: shyamphartyal@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Mudflats are exposed for short periods after flood water drawdown. They support fast-growing annual herbs with a ruderal strategy. To optimize their recruitment success, seeds of mudflat species germinate better under fluctuating temperatures, full illumination and aerobic environments that indicate the presence of optimal (non-flooded) conditions for plant growth and development. Here, we hypothesize that prior exposure of mudflat seeds to hypoxic (flooded) environment interferes with the germination process and results in more vigorous germination once aerobic conditions are regained. To test this hypothesis, seeds of five mudflat species were incubated in both aerobic and hypoxic environments at four (14/6, 22/14, 22/22 and 30/22°C) temperature regimes, reflecting different (seasonal) conditions when drawdowns may occur. All species responded positively to four temperature regimes; however, moderate 22/14 and 22/22°C temperatures were optimum for high percentages and rates (speed) of seed germination. Since seeds of four species germinated exclusively under aerobic conditions, they were moved from hypoxic to aerobic conditions. Prior exposure of seeds to hypoxic environment facilitated high percentages, rates and synchronization of germination of Limosella aquatica, Peplis portula and Samolus valerandi seeds compared to incubation under strict aerobic conditions. However, prior exposure to hypoxic environment induced secondary dormancy in non-dormant seeds of Hypericum humifusum but broke dormancy in Lythrum hyssopifolia seeds that otherwise required cold stratification to overcome physiological dormancy. All species that have a narrow ecological niche (strictly occurring in mudflat habitats) showed positive responses to prior exposure to hypoxic environments. In contrast, H. humifusum that has a wide ecological niche (from mudflats to moist sandy grasslands) showed a negative response. We conclude that the hypoxic environment may strongly affect seed germination behaviour once the aerobic environment is regained. The most striking effect is the acceleration of the germination process and, therefore, life cycle supporting the survival in an ephemeral habitat.

Keywords

floodedgerminationhypoxiamudflatseed dormancysynchronization indexwetland
Type
Research Paper
Information
Seed Science Research , Volume 30 , Special Issue 4: Functional Seed Ecology , December 2020 , pp. 268 - 274
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.)

References

Baskin, CC and Baskin, JM (2014) Seeds: ecology, biogeography and evolution of dormancy and germination. New York, Academic Press/Elsevier Science.Google Scholar
Baskin, CC, Baskin, JM and Chester, EW (1993) Seed germination ecophysiology of four summer annual mudflat species of Cyperaceae. Aquatic Botany 45, 41–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baskin, CC, Baskin, JM and Chester, EW (1994) Annual dormancy cycle and influence of flooding in buried seeds of mudflat populations of the summer annual Leucospora multifida. Ecoscience 1, 47–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baskin, CC, Baskin, JM and Chester, EW (2000a) Effect of flooding on the annual dormancy cycle and on germination of seeds of the summer annual Schoenoplectus purshianus (Cyperaceae). Aquatic Botany 67, 109–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baskin, CC, Baskin, JM and Chester, EW (2000b) Studies on the ecological life cycle of the native winter annual grass Alopecurus carolinianus, with particular reference to seed germination biology in a floodplain habitat. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 127, 280–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baskin, CC, Baskin, JM and Chester, EW (2002a) Effects of flooding and temperature on dormancy break in seeds of the summer annual mudflat species Ammannia coccinea and Rotala ramosior (Lythraceae). Wetlands 22, 661–668.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baskin, CC, Milberg, P, Andersson, L and Baskin, JM (2002b) Non-deep simple morphophysiological dormancy in seeds of the weedy facultative winter annual Papaver rhoeas. Weed Research 42, 194–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baskin, CC, Baskin, JM and Chester, EW (2004) Seed germination ecology of the summer annual Cyperus squarrosus in an unpredictable mudflat habitat. Acta Oecologica 26, 9–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benvenuti, S and Macchia, M (1997) Germination ecophysiology of bur beggarticks (Bidens tripartita) as affected by light and oxygen. Weed Science 45, 696–700.Google Scholar
Böckelmann, J, Tremetsberger, K, Šumberová, K, Grausgruber, H and Bernhardt, KG (2017) Fitness and growth of the ephemeral mudflat species Cyperus fuscus in river and anthropogenic habitats in response to fluctuating water levels. Flora 234, 135–149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cole, NA (1977) Effect of light, temperature, and flooding on seed germination of the Neotropical Panicum laxum Sw. Biotropica 9, 191–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Come, D, Corbineau, F and Soudain, P (1991) Beneficial effects of oxygen deprivation on germination and plant development, pp. 69–83 in Jackson, MB, Davies, DD, Lambers, H (Eds.) Plant life under oxygen deprivation. The Hague, The Netherlands, SPB Academic Publishing.Google Scholar
Coops, H and van der Velde, G (1995) Seed dispersal, germination and seedling growth of six helophyte species in relation to water-level zonation. Freshwater Biology 34, 13–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Melo, RB, Franco, AC, Silva, CO, Piedade, MTF and Ferreira, CS (2015) Seed germination and seedling development in response to submergence in tree species of the Central Amazonian floodplains. AoB Plants 7. doi:10.1093/aobpla/plv041.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
de Oliveira Wittmann, A, Piedade, MT, Parolin, P and Wittmann, F (2007) Germination in four low-várzea tree species of Central Amazonia. Aquatic Botany 86, 197–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farmer, AM and Spence, DHN (1987) Flowering, germination and zonation of the submerged aquatic plant Lobelia dortmanna L. Journal of Ecology 75, 1065–1076.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenner, M and Thompson, K (2005) The ecology of seeds. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferreira, CS, Piedade, MTF, Junk, WJ and Parolin, P (2007) Floodplain and upland populations of Amazonian Himatanthu ssucuuba: effects of flooding on germination, seedling growth and mortality. Environmental and Experimental Botany 60, 477–483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holguín, JE, Crepy, M, Striker, GG and Mollard, FP (2020) Dormancy breakage and germination are tightly controlled by hypoxic submergence water on Echinochloa crus-galli seeds from an accession resistant to anaerobic germination. Seed Science Research 30, 1–6. doi:10.1017/ S0960258520000070.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Honěk, A and Martinkova, Z (1992) The induction of secondary seed dormancy by oxygen deficiency in a barnyard grass Echinochloa crus-galli. Experientia 48, 904–906.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jarvis, JC and Moore, KA (2008) Influence of environmental factors on Vallisneria americana seed germination. Aquatic Botany 88, 283–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lozano-Isla, F, Benites-Alfaro, OE and Pompelli, MF (2019) GerminaR: an R package for germination analysis with the interactive web application “GerminaQuant for R”. Ecological Research 34, 339–346. doi:10.1111/1440-1703.1275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucas, CM, Mekdece, F, Nascimento, CM, Holanda, ASS, Braga, J, Dias, S, Sousa, S, Rosa, PS and Suemitsu, C (2012) Effects of short-term and prolonged saturation on seed germination of Amazonian floodplain forest species. Aquatic Botany 99, 49–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nishihiro, J, Araki, S, Fujiwara, N and Washitani, I (2004a) Germination characteristics of lakeshore plants under an artificially stabilized water regime. Aquatic Botany 79, 333–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nishihiro, J, Miyawaki, S, Fujiwara, N and Washitani, I (2004b) Regeneration failure of lakeshore plants under an artificially altered water regime. Ecological Research 19, 613–623.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oberdorfer, E (2001) Pflanzensoziologische exkursionsflora. Stuttgart, Germany, Ulmer.Google Scholar
Parolin, P, Ferreira, LV and Junk, WJ (2003) Germination characteristics and establishment of trees from central Amazonian flood plains. Tropical Ecology 44, 155–168.Google Scholar
Peralta Ogorek, L, Striker, GG and Mollard, FP (2019) Echinochloa crus-galli seed physiological dormancy and germination responses to hypoxic floodwaters. Plant Biology 21, 1159–1166.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Phartyal, SS, Rosbakh, S and Poschlod, P (2018) Seed germination ecology in Trapa natans L., a widely distributed freshwater macrophyte. Aquatic Botany 147, 18–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phartyal, SS, Rosbakh, S, Ritz, C and Poschlod, P (2020) Ready for change: Seed traits contribute to the high adaptability of mudflat species to their unpredictable habitat. Journal of Vegetation Science 31, 331–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poschlod, P and Rosbakh, S (2018) Mudflat species: threatened or hidden? An extensive seed bank survey of 108 fish ponds in Southern Germany. Biological Conservation 225, 154–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poschlod, P, Abedi, M, Bartelheimer, M, Drobnik, J, Rosbakh, S and Saatkamp, A (2013) Seed ecology and assembly rules in plant communities, pp. 164–202 in van der Maarel, E (Ed.) Vegetation ecology. Chichester, UK, Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
R core development team (2020) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria, R Foundation for Statistical Computing.Google Scholar
Rosbakh, S, Phartyal, SS and Poschlod, P (2020) Seed germination traits shape community assembly along a hydroperiod gradient. Annals of Botany 125, 67–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saatkamp, A, Cochrane, A, Commander, L, Guja, LK, Jimenez-Alfaro, B, Larson, J, … and Walck, J (2019) A research agenda for seed-trait functional ecology. New Phytologist 221, 1764–1775.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shetty, MS (1967) Germination and seedling establishment of Sphaeranthus indicus linn. in relation to soil moisture. Tropical Ecology 8, 138.Google Scholar
Valdez, JW, Hartig, F, Fennel, S and Poschlod, P (2019) The recruitment niche predicts plant community assembly across a hydrological gradient along ploughed and undisturbed transects in a former agricultural wetland. Frontiers in Plant Science 10, 88. doi:10.3389/fpls.2019.00088.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voigtlander, CW and Poppe, WL (1989) The Tennessee river, pp. 372–384 in Dodge, DP (Ed.) Proceedings of the International Large River Symposium (LARS). Ottawa, Canada, Canadian Special Publication of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 106.Google Scholar
Watanabe, H and Miyahara, M (1989) Seed dormancy of some lowland weeds of Scirpus buried in paddy soil, pp. 309–315 in Proceedings of 12th Asian-Pacific Weed Science Society Conference (No. 2). Taipei, Taiwan, Asian-Pacific Weed Science Society.Google Scholar
Webb, DH, Dennis, WM and Bates, AL (1988) An analysis of the plant community of mudflats of TVA mainstream reservoirs, pp. 177–198 in Snyder, DH (Ed.) Proceedings of the First Annual Symposium on the Natural History of Lower Cumberland and Tennessee River Valleys. Clarksville, TN, The Center for Field Biology, Austin Peay State University.Google Scholar