Germination from the soil seed bank (SSB) is an important determinant of species composition in tropical forest gaps, with seed persistence in the SSB allowing trees to recruit even decades after dispersal. The capacity to form a persistent SSB is often associated with physical dormancy, where seed coats are impermeable at the time of dispersal. Germination literature often speculates, without ...

Non-native earthworms have invaded ecosystems around the world but have recently received increased attention as they invaded previously earthworm-free habitats in northern North America. Earthworms can affect plants by ingesting seeds and burying them in the soil. These effects can be negative or positive but are expected to become increasingly negative with decreasing seed size. Orchids have ...

The non-enzymatic modifications of proteins through Amadori and Maillard reactions play an important role in the loss of seed viability during storage. In the present study, the contribution of sugar hydrolysis and lipid peroxidation to Amadori and Maillard reactions, and to seed deterioration was investigated in mung-bean (Vigna radiata Wilczek). The contents of glucose and lipid peroxidation ...

As pinyon–juniper (specifically, Pinus monophylla and Juniperus osteosperma) woodlands in the western United States increase in distribution and density, understory growth declines and the occurrence of crown fires increases, leaving mountainsides open to both soil erosion and invasion by exotic species. We examined if the loss in understory cover that occurred with increasing tree cover was re...

Seed predators and dispersers may drive the speed and structure of forest regeneration in natural ecosystems. Rodents and ants prey upon and disperse seeds, yet empirical studies on the magnitude of these effects are lacking. Here, we examined the role of ants and rodents on seed predation in 4 plant species in a successional gradient on a tropical rainforest island. We found that (1) seeds are...

Abstract Key message Environmental stress resulting from rapid climate changes leads to the initiation of seed aging process in mitochondria and peroxisomes. Seed storage methods limiting germinability loss are fundamental for forest future. is a natural process. It decreases germination rate, i.e. essential plant’s life cycle. Aging involves progressive accumulation oxidative damage over time....

Arabidopsis APETALA2 (AP2) encodes a member of the AP2/EREBP (ethylene responsive element binding protein) class of transcription factors and is involved in the specification of floral organ identity, establishment of floral meristem identity, suppression of floral meristem indeterminancy, and development of the ovule and seed coat. Here, we show that loss-of-function ap2 mutations cause an inc...

Defaunation alters trophic interactions between plants and vertebrates, whichmay disrupt trophic cascades, thereby favoring a subset of plant species and reducing diversity. If particular functional traits characterize the favored plant species,.then defaunation may alter community-wide patterns of functional trait composition. Changes in plant functional traits occurring with defaunation may h...

Poaching is rapidly extirpating African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) from most of their historical range, leaving vast areas of elephant-free tropical forest. Elephants are ecological engineers that create and maintain forest habitat; thus, their loss will have large consequences for the composition and structure of Afrotropical forests. Through a comprehensive literature review, we ev...

than those for 100 % curves. Since there exists no non-decreasing functional relationship between germination percentage and energy loss in this region, ionizations in the fruit coat cannot be responsible for the induced germination. Likewise, in the region of the embryo there is a 69 % germination curve which lies above a 100 % curve. (In both of these cases visible embryo damage could be seen...