Seed weight increases with altitude in the Swiss Alps between related species but not among populations of individual species
Seed weight is a crucial plant life history trait, determining establishment success and dispersal ability. Especially in stressful environments, larger seeds may be selected at the expense of seed number, because larger seeds have a better chance of giving rise to an established offspring. We teste...
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ftreroch:oai:doc.rero.ch:316030 2023-05-15T18:15:15+02:00 Seed weight increases with altitude in the Swiss Alps between related species but not among populations of individual species Pluess, Andrea Schütz, Wolfgang Stöcklin, Jürg 2018-06-18T17:51:22Z http://doc.rero.ch/record/316030/files/442_2005_Article_47.pdf eng eng http://doc.rero.ch/record/316030/files/442_2005_Article_47.pdf 2018 ftreroch 2023-02-16T17:31:46Z Seed weight is a crucial plant life history trait, determining establishment success and dispersal ability. Especially in stressful environments, larger seeds may be selected at the expense of seed number, because larger seeds have a better chance of giving rise to an established offspring. We tested the hypotheses that between related species-pairs and among populations of single species a similar trend for increasing seed weight with increasing altitude should be present. Firstly, we measured seed weights from 29 species-pairs, with one species occurring in lowland areas and a congeneric species from high altitudes. Seeds of the alpine species were 28±8% larger than seeds from lowland species (P<0.01). Compared to the related lowland species, 55% of the alpine species had heavier seeds, 3% (one species) had lighter, and 41% had seeds of approximately equal weight. Secondly, we compared seed weights among populations of four species from different habitats and with different life histories. Seeds from between 11 and 34 populations per species were sampled along altitudinal gradients of 800-1,500m (ca. 800m in Scabiosa lucida, ca. 1,000m in Saxifraga oppositifolia, ca. 1,000m in Epilobium fleischeri, and ca. 1,500m in Carex flacca). In all the four species, we found no indication for heavier seeds at higher altitudes. Our results indicate a selection pressure for species with heavier seeds at higher altitude, but the trend does not seem to operate across all cases. Phylogenetic constraints may limit the correlation among altitude and seed weight, operating particularly against selection for larger seed size, the closer populations and species are related to each other Other/Unknown Material Saxifraga oppositifolia RERO DOC Digital Library |
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Open Polar |
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RERO DOC Digital Library |
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ftreroch |
language |
English |
description |
Seed weight is a crucial plant life history trait, determining establishment success and dispersal ability. Especially in stressful environments, larger seeds may be selected at the expense of seed number, because larger seeds have a better chance of giving rise to an established offspring. We tested the hypotheses that between related species-pairs and among populations of single species a similar trend for increasing seed weight with increasing altitude should be present. Firstly, we measured seed weights from 29 species-pairs, with one species occurring in lowland areas and a congeneric species from high altitudes. Seeds of the alpine species were 28±8% larger than seeds from lowland species (P<0.01). Compared to the related lowland species, 55% of the alpine species had heavier seeds, 3% (one species) had lighter, and 41% had seeds of approximately equal weight. Secondly, we compared seed weights among populations of four species from different habitats and with different life histories. Seeds from between 11 and 34 populations per species were sampled along altitudinal gradients of 800-1,500m (ca. 800m in Scabiosa lucida, ca. 1,000m in Saxifraga oppositifolia, ca. 1,000m in Epilobium fleischeri, and ca. 1,500m in Carex flacca). In all the four species, we found no indication for heavier seeds at higher altitudes. Our results indicate a selection pressure for species with heavier seeds at higher altitude, but the trend does not seem to operate across all cases. Phylogenetic constraints may limit the correlation among altitude and seed weight, operating particularly against selection for larger seed size, the closer populations and species are related to each other |
author |
Pluess, Andrea Schütz, Wolfgang Stöcklin, Jürg |
spellingShingle |
Pluess, Andrea Schütz, Wolfgang Stöcklin, Jürg Seed weight increases with altitude in the Swiss Alps between related species but not among populations of individual species |
author_facet |
Pluess, Andrea Schütz, Wolfgang Stöcklin, Jürg |
author_sort |
Pluess, Andrea |
title |
Seed weight increases with altitude in the Swiss Alps between related species but not among populations of individual species |
title_short |
Seed weight increases with altitude in the Swiss Alps between related species but not among populations of individual species |
title_full |
Seed weight increases with altitude in the Swiss Alps between related species but not among populations of individual species |
title_fullStr |
Seed weight increases with altitude in the Swiss Alps between related species but not among populations of individual species |
title_full_unstemmed |
Seed weight increases with altitude in the Swiss Alps between related species but not among populations of individual species |
title_sort |
seed weight increases with altitude in the swiss alps between related species but not among populations of individual species |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://doc.rero.ch/record/316030/files/442_2005_Article_47.pdf |
genre |
Saxifraga oppositifolia |
genre_facet |
Saxifraga oppositifolia |
op_relation |
http://doc.rero.ch/record/316030/files/442_2005_Article_47.pdf |
_version_ |
1766188353636532224 |