Movatterモバイル変換

[0]ホーム
URL:

Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
Thehttps:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

NIH NLM Logo
Log inShow account info
Access keysNCBI HomepageMyNCBI HomepageMain ContentMain Navigation
pubmed logo
Advanced Clipboard
User Guide

Full text links

Public Library of Science full text link Public Library of Science Free PMC article
Full text links

Actions

Share

.2013 Apr 11;8(4):e61060.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0061060. Print 2013.

Patterns of cross-continental variation in tree seed mass in the Canadian Boreal Forest

Affiliations

Patterns of cross-continental variation in tree seed mass in the Canadian Boreal Forest

Jushan Liu et al. PLoS One..

Abstract

Seed mass is an adaptive trait affecting species distribution, population dynamics and community structure. In widely distributed species, variation in seed mass may reflect both genetic adaptation to local environments and adaptive phenotypic plasticity. Acknowledging the difficulty in separating these two aspects, we examined the causal relationships determining seed mass variation to better understand adaptability and/or plasticity of selected tree species to spatial/climatic variation. A total of 504, 481 and 454 seed collections of black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.), white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) and jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb) across the Canadian Boreal Forest, respectively, were selected. Correlation analyses were used to determine how seed mass vary with latitude, longitude, and altitude. Structural Equation Modeling was used to examine how geographic and climatic variables influence seed mass. Climatic factors explained a large portion of the variation in seed mass (34, 14 and 29%, for black spruce, white spruce and jack pine, respectively), indicating species-specific adaptation to long term climate conditions. Higher annual mean temperature and winter precipitation caused greater seed mass in black spruce, but annual precipitation was the controlling factor for white spruce. The combination of factors such as growing season temperature and evapotranspiration, temperature seasonality and annual precipitation together determined seed mass of jack pine. Overall, sites with higher winter temperatures were correlated with larger seeds. Thus, long-term climatic conditions, at least in part, determined spatial variation in seed mass. Black spruce and Jack pine, species with relatively more specific habitat requirements and less plasticity, had more variation in seed mass explained by climate than did the more plastic species white spruce. As traits such as seed mass are related to seedling growth and survival, they potentially influence forest species composition in a changing climate and should be included in future modeling of vegetation shifts.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests:The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Location of seed collections of black spruce, white spruce and jack pine.
Figure 2
Figure 2. SEM for geographic variation of seed mass for black spruce, white spruce and jack pine.
Non-significant paths are indicated by dotted arrows. The thickness of the solid arrows reflects the magnitude of the standardized SEM coefficients. Standardized coefficients are listed beside each significant path, as is the variance explained (r2) for each endogenous variable.1AT, Annual temperature (°C);2TS, Temperature seasonality (%);3AP, Annual precipitation (mm);4PS, Precipitation seasonality (°C);5AR, Annual radiation (mrem);6EF, Total potential evaporation in the fall (August to November) (mm);7RG, Mean radiation in growing season (April to September) (mrem);8EG, Total potential evaporation of growing season (April to September) (mm);9TG, Mean temperature of growing season (April to September) (°C);10TRG, Temperature range of growing season (°C).
Figure 3
Figure 3. Relationships between seed mass and significant climatic variables in SEM.
The climatic variables are annual mean temperature (a), precipitation seasonality (b), total potential evaporation in the fall (c) for black spruce (solid circle); annual precipitation (d) for white spruce (solid square); mean temperature of GS (growing season) (e) and total potential evaporation of GS (growing season) (f) for jack pine (solid triangle point-up).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Guo Q, Brown JH, Valone TJ, Kachman SD (2000) Constraints of seed size on plant distribution and abundance. Ecology 81: 2149–2155.
    1. Leishman MR, Murray BR (2001) The relationship between seed size and abundance in plant communities: Model predictions and observed patterns. Oikos 94: 151–161.
    1. Walck JL, Hidayati SN, Dixon KW, Thompson K, Poschlod P (2011) Climate change and plant regeneration from seed. Global Change Biol 17: 2145–2161.
    1. Wulff RD (1986) Seed size variation in Desmodium paniculatum. I. Factors affecting seed size. J Ecol 74: 87–97.
    1. Silvertown J (1989) The paradox of seed size and adaptation. Trends Ecol Evol 4: 24–26. - PubMed

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

The authors have no support or funding to report.

LinkOut - more resources

Full text links
Public Library of Science full text link Public Library of Science Free PMC article
Cite
Send To

NCBI Literature Resources

MeSHPMCBookshelfDisclaimer

The PubMed wordmark and PubMed logo are registered trademarks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Unauthorized use of these marks is strictly prohibited.

[8]ページ先頭
©2009-2025 Movatter.jp