Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T09:16:06.095Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Seed mass and nutrient content in nutrient-starved tropical rainforest in Venezuela

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2008

Peter J. Grubb  and
David A. Coomes
Peter J. Grubb*
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EA, UK
David A. Coomes
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EA, UK
*
*Correspondence
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Mean seed dry mass values were determined for 27 species of trees and shrubs in Amazonian caatinga (a forest-type especially short of nitrogen) and for 11 species in adjacent much taller forest on less poor soil. The tall trees (> 15 m) of caatinga have smaller seeds than the tall trees in adjacent forest on less infertile soil (both overall and in six taxonomically controlled comparisons), and than the tall trees in lowland rainforests elsewhere. The smaller seed size is interpreted in terms of a major advantage of keeping up seed number outweighing the marginal advantages of larger seed size. For trees of caatinga and adjacent forest considered together, there is a significantly greater concentration of P and Mg, and almost significantly greater concentration of N, in the embryo-cum-endosperm fraction of smaller-seeded species, but the content per seed of N, P and Mg is smaller in smaller seeds. The mean contribution of the seed coat (including endocarp for pyrenes) was 17% for dry mass, 3% for content of P, 10% for N and Mg, 15% for K, and 30% for Ca.

Keywords

seed sizemineral nutrientssoil fertilitytropical rainforestcaatinga
Type
Ecology
Information
Seed Science Research , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , September 1997 , pp. 269 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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

Armstrong, D.P. and Westoby, M. (1993) Seedlings from large seeds tolerate defoliation better: a test using phylogenetically independent contrasts. Ecology 74, 1092–1100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coomes, D.A. (1997) Nutrient status of Amazonian caatinga forests in a seasonally dry area: nutrient fluxes, litterfall and analyses of soils. Canadian Journal of Forest Research in press.Google Scholar
Coomes, D.A. and Grubb, P.J. (1996) Amazonian caatinga and related communities at La Esmeralda, Venezuela: forest structure, physiognomy and floristics, and control by soil factors. Vegetatio 122, 167–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coomes, D.A. and Grubb, P.J. (In press) Responses of juveniles to above- and below-ground competition in nutrient-starved Amazonian rainforest. Ecology.Google Scholar
Denslow, J.S., Newell, E. and Ellison, A.M. (1991) The effect of understorey palms and cyclanths on the growth and survival of Inga seedlings. Biotropica 23, 225–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earle, F.R. and Jones, Q. (1962) Analyses of seed samples from 113 families. Economic Botany 16, 221–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenner, M. (1983) Relationships between seed weight, ash content and seedling growth in twenty-four species of Compositae. New Phytologist 95, 697–706.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenner, M. and Lee, W.G. (1989) Growth of seedlings of pasture grasses and legumes deprived of single nutrients. Journal of Applied Ecology 26, 223–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, S.A. and Janson, C.H. (1985) The relationship between seed size and establishment conditions in tropical woody plants. Ecology 66, 773–780.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grubb, P.J. (1996) Rainforest dynamics: the need for new paradigms. pp 215–233in Edwards, D.S., Booth, W.E. and Choy, S.C. (Eds) Tropical rainforest research: current issues. Dordrecht, Netherlands, Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grubb, P.J. (In press) Seeds of tropical rainforest plants: interpretation of the range in size, degree of defence and flesh/seed quotients. In Newbery, D.M., Brown, N.D. and Prins, H. (Eds) Population and community dynamics in the tropics. Symposium of the British Ecological Society 37. Oxford, UK, Blackwell Science.Google Scholar
Grubb, P.J. and Metcalfe, D.J. (1996) Adaptation and inertia in the Australian tropical lowland rainforest flora: contradictory trends in intergeneric and intrageneric comparisons of seed size in relation to light demand. Functional Ecology 10, 512–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grubb, P.J., Turner, I.M. and Burslem, D.F.R.P. (1994) Mineral nutrient status of coastal hill dipterocarp forest and adinandra belukar in Singapore: analysis of soil, leaves and litter. Journal of Tropical Ecology 10, 559–577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammond, D.S. and Brown, V.K. (1995) Seed size of woody plants in relation to disturbance, dispersal, soil type in wet neotropical forests Ecology 76, 2544–2561.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huber, O. and Alarcon, C. (1988) Mapa de vegetacion de Venezuela. Ministerio del Ambiente y de los Recursos Renovables: Division de Vegetacion, Caracas.Google Scholar
Janzen, D. (1974) Tropical blackwater rivers, animals, and mast fruiting by Dipterocarpaceae. Biotropica 6, 69–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Q. and Earle, F.R. (1966) Chemical analyses of seeds II: Oil and protein content of 759 species. Economic Botany 20, 127–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jordan, C.F. (1989) An Amazonian rain forest: the structure and function of a nutrient stressed ecosystem and the impact of slash-and-burn agriculture. Man and the biosphere series. Vol. 2. Carnforth, Lancashire, UK, Parthenon.Google Scholar
Kelly, C.K. (1995) Seed size in tropical trees: a comparative study of factors affecting seed size in Peruvian angiosperms. Oecologia 102, 377–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, C.K. and Purvis, A. (1993) Seed size and establishment conditions in tropical trees. On the use of taxonomic relatedness in determining ecological patterns. Oecologia 94, 356–360.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, W.G. and Fenner, M. (1989) Mineral nutrient allocation in seeds and shoots of twelve Chionochloa species in relation to soil fertility. Journal of Ecology 77, 704–716.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, W.G., Grubb, P.J. and Wilson, J.B. (1991) Patterns of resource allocation in fleshy fruits of European tall-shrub species. Oikos 61, 307–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leishman, M. and Westoby, M. (1994a) Hypotheses on seed size tests using the semiarid flora of western New South Wales, Australia. American Naturalist 143, 890–906.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leishman, M. and Westoby, M. (1994b) The role of large seed size in shaded conditions: experimental evidence. Functional Ecology 8, 205–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leishman, M. and Westoby, M. (1994c) The role of seed size in seedling establishment in dry soil conditions — experimental evidence from semi-arid species. Journal of Ecology 82, 249–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lloyd, D.G. (1987) Selection of offspring size at independence and other size-number strategies. American Naturalist 129, 800–817.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mazer, S. (1989) Taxonomic, ecological and and life-history correlates of seed mass among Indiana Dune angiosperms. Ecological Monographs 59, 153–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mazer, S. (1990) Seed mass of Indiana dune genera and families: taxonomic and ecological correlates. Evolutionary Ecology 4, 326–357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Medina, E. and Cuevas, E. (1989) Patterns of nutrient accumulation and release in Amazonian forests of the upper Río Negro basin. pp 217–240in Proctor, J. (Ed.) Mineral nutrients in tropical forest and savanna ecosystems. Oxford, UK, Blackwell Scientific Publications.Google Scholar
Metcalfe, D.J. and Grubb, P.J. (1995) Seed mass and light requirement for regeneration in South-East Asian rain forest. Canadian Journal of Botany 73, 817–826.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ng, F.S.P. (1978) Strategies of establishment in Malayan forest trees. pp 129–162in Tomlinson, P. B. and Zimmermann, M. H. (Eds) Tropical trees as living systems. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pate, J.S., Rasins, E., Rullo, J. and Kuo, J. (1986) Seed nutrient reserves of Proteaceae with special reference to protein bodies and their inclusions. Annals of Botany 57, 747–770.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Proctor, J. (1984) Tropical forest litterfall. II. The data set. pp 83–113in Chadwick, A.C. and Sutton, S.L. (Eds) Tropical rain-forest. The Leeds symposium. Leeds, UK, Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society.Google Scholar
Putz, F.E. and Appanah, S. (1987) Buried seeds, newly dispersed seeds, and the dynamics of a lowland rain forest in Malaysia. Biotropica 19, 326–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rockwood, L.L. (1985) Seed weight as a function of life form, elevation and life zone in neotropical forests. Biotropica 17, 32–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seiwa, K. and Kikuzawa, K. (1991) Phenology of tree seedlings in relation to seed size. Canadian Journal of Botany 69, 532–538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, A.P. (1987) Repuestas de hierbas del sotobosque tropical a claros ocasionados por la caida de arboles. Revista de Biologia Tropical 35 (Supplement), 111–118.Google Scholar
Smith, C.C. and Fretwell, S.D. (1974) The optimal balance between size and number of offspring. American Naturalist 108, 499–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, K. and Rabinowitz, D. (1989) Do big plants have big seeds? American Naturalist 133, 722–728.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vitousek, P.M. and Sanford, R.L. (1986) Nutrient cycling in moist tropical forest. Annual Reviews of Ecology and Systematics 17, 137–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webb, L.J. (1959) A physiognomic classification of Australian rain forests. Journal of Ecology 47, 551–570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westoby, M., Jurado, E. and Leishman, M. (1992) Comparative ecology of seed size. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 7, 368–372.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zar, J.H. (1984) Biostatistical analysis, 2nd Ed.Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA, Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar