Phylogeny strongly drives seed dormancy and quality in a climatically buffered hotspot for plant endemism.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Models of costs and benefits of dormancy (D) predict that the evolutionarily stable strategy in long-term stable environments is for non-dormancy (ND), but this prediction remains to be tested empirically. We reviewed seed traits of species in the climatically buffered, geologically stable and nutrient-impoverished campo rupestre grasslands in Brazil to test the hypothesis that ND is favoured over D. We examined the relative importance of life-history traits and phylogeny in driving the evolution of D and assessed seed viability at the community level.

Methods

Germination and viability data were retrieved from 67 publications and ND/D was determined for 168 species in 25 angiosperm families. We also obtained the percentage of embryoless, viable and dorman

SUBMITTER: Dayrell RL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5321058 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature