Submission Form Title: Does cattle dung determine differences in germination responses of grazing increasers vs decreasers? Author(s): Carlos P. Carmona, Francisco M. Azcárate & Begoña Peco Institutional Affiliations: Department of Ecology. Universidad Autónoma. Madrid. Spain

The term phenology is derived from the Greek word phaino meaning to show or to appear. Hence, phenology is defined as the study of the seasonal timing of life cycle events. For plants the seasonal timing of such events can be critical to survival and reproduction. In agriculture the most common failure of introduced crops is the inability to adjust to the seasons imposed by the new, environment...

Understanding the key aspects of plant regeneration from seeds is crucial in assessing species assembly to their habitats. However, the regenerative traits of seed dormancy and germination are underrepresented in this context. In the alpine zone, the large species and microhabitat diversity provide an ideal context to assess habitat-related regenerative strategies. To this end, seeds of 53 spec...

Carex divisa is a patrimonial rhizomatous species and acts as an important component of grazed wet permanent grassland on the French Atlantic coast. This study treated three storage regimes (wet-cold, dry-cold and dry-warm), burial in soil, fluctuating temperature and salinity on seed germination of C. divisa. The seeds were dormant at maturity. No seed germinated after 2 and 6 weeks of dry sto...

Seed germination strategies vary dramatically among species but relatively little is known about how germination traits correlate with other elements of plant strategy systems. Understanding drivers of germination strategy is critical to our understanding of the evolutionary biology of plant reproduction.We present a novel assessment of seed germination strategies focussing on Australian alpine...

Karrikins are a class of seed germination stimulants identified in smoke from wildfires. Microarray analysis of imbibed Arabidopsis thaliana seeds was performed to identify transcriptional responses to KAR(1) before germination. A small set of genes that are regulated by KAR(1), even when germination is prevented by the absence of gibberellin biosynthesis or light, were identified. Light-induce...