1992/09/01 by E. Jurado, Enrique Jurado, Mark Westoby +1 · 302 citations
Environmental Science · #Agronomy #Arid #Biology #Botany #Ecological succession #Ecology #Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies #Germination #Horticulture #Loam #Rangeland and Wildlife Management #Revegetation #Seedling #Seedling growth and survival studies #Shoot #Soil water
paper · doi:10.2307/2260686
published in Journal of Ecology 80(3), 407 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 1992/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/26
It has been reported that species from environments where seedlings are prone to drought during establishment tend to have larger seeds. One proposed reason for this is that larger-seeded species might be able to allocate a larger proportion of mass to roots rather than shoots during early growth. Seedlings of 32 species from arid central Australia were grown in coarse sand under standard conditions in a glasshouse, and harvested 10 days after germination. Seedlings from heavier-seeded species did not allocate relatively more resources to roots than lighter-seeded species. Complementary experiments confirmed this result for plants grown on sandy loam, in drying as compared to well-watered soil, and under shaded conditions (...)