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The evolutionary correlation associated with seed mass and altitude on nutrient allocation of seeds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2019

Hai-Yan Bu Open the ORCID record for Hai-Yan Bu [Opens in a new window] ,
Yan-Ming Zhang ,
Di Zhao ,
Su-Yu Wang ,
Peng Jia ,
Wei Qi ,
Kun Liu ,
Dang-Hui Xu ,
Wen-Jing Ge  and
Xue-Jing Wang
Hai-Yan Bu*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China, 730000
Yan-Ming Zhang
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China, 730000
Di Zhao
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China, 730000
Su-Yu Wang
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China, 730000
Peng Jia
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China, 730000
Wei Qi
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China, 730000
Kun Liu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China, 730000
Dang-Hui Xu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China, 730000
Wen-Jing Ge
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China, 730000
Xue-Jing Wang
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China, 730000
*
Author for correspondence: Hai-Yan Bu, Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Seed reserves play vital roles in seed germination and seedling growth and their variation may be related to various environment factors, plant traits and phylogenetic history. Here, the evolutionary correlation associated with seed mass and altitude and carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) allocation of seeds among 253 alpine herbaceous plants was tested. In this study, phylogeny had strong limitations on nutrient allocation of seeds across species, and species from younger phylogenetic groups tended to have higher N and P contents, which might be considered as the evolutionary selection of seed plants. Higher seed N and P content would help seedlings to gain more survival chance and stronger competitive capacity, and their progeny would be more likely to be preserved. When phylogeny was considered, altitude only had a significant positive effect on P content, but the negative effects on seed mass were all expressed. The independent effects of altitude and seed mass suggest that the nutrient allocation of seeds might be affected by both environment and plant traits. In addition, altitude and seed mass displayed partial overlapping effects on nutrient allocation of seeds. The negative effects of seed mass were affected slightly by altitude, whereas altitude only had a significant positive effect on P content when seed mass was controlled. Above all, seed P content showed obvious and general correlations with seed mass, altitude and age of clade, which indicated that higher seed P content might be an adaptive selection of species associated with growth and survival of progeny.

Keywords

altitudecarbonnitrogenphosphorusphylogenyseed mass
Type
Research Paper
Information
Seed Science Research , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , March 2019 , pp. 38 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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