Simulated Photovoltaic Solar Panels Alter the Seed Bank Survival of Two Desert Annual Plant Species.

ABSTRACT: Seed bank survival underpins plant population persistence but studies on seed bank trait-environment interactions are few. Changes in environmental conditions relevant to seed banks occur in desert ecosystems owing to solar energy development. We developed a conceptual model of seed bank survival to complement methodologies using in-situ seed bank packets. Using this framework, we quantified the seed bank survival of two closely related annual desert plant species, one rare (Eriophyllum mohavense) and one common (Eriophyllum wallacei), and the seed bank-environment interactions of these two species in the Mojave Desert within a system that emulates microhabitat variation associated with solar energy development. We tracked 4860 seeds buried across 540 seed packets and found, averaged acros

SUBMITTER: Hernandez RR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7570262 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature