How long does it take for different seeds to dry?
James P. Hill A D , Will Edwards A and Peter J. Franks A B CA School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Cairns, Qld 4870, Australia.
B Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.
C Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
D Corresponding author. Email: james.hill@jcu.edu.au
Functional Plant Biology 37(6) 575-583 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP09210
Submitted: 6 August 2009 Accepted: 12 March 2010 Published: 20 May 2010
Abstract
Reduction in rainfall and intensification of dry season moisture deficit threaten to expose desiccation-sensitive seeds in the seasonal tropics to greater potential negative effects of desiccation. A determinate affecting the recruitment of species under increased aridity is how quickly desiccation-sensitive seeds dehydrate. We investigated the rate of seed moisture loss in 24 species that produce desiccation-sensitive seeds in a seasonal tropical forest and tested the common hypothesis that seeds conform to a simple negative exponential model of moisture loss with time. A negative exponential model described moisture loss in 14 species, but was not the best model for the remaining 10 species. Moisture loss in eight species was best described by a double-negative exponential model and by a double-linear model in the remaining two species. We then tested the hypothesis that seed mass could predict the rate of desiccation between and within species. Within species the time to a given state of desiccation could be predicted by seed mass for eight species. Between species there was no relationship between desiccation rate and seed mass. We conclude that different modes of water loss and seed structural features may be more important than seed mass in prolonging desiccation.
Additional keywords: climate change, desiccation-sensitive seed, seed desiccation rate, seed ecology, seed mass, tropical forest.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Roger Leakey and Jamie Seymour for the use of their equipment and Peter Siemsen for his voluntary work in the field. We thank the Rainforest CRC for monetary support to JPH. The study was supported by a JCU post-graduate scholarship to JPH.
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