1992/09/01 by E. Jurado, Enrique Jurado, Mark Westoby +1 · 9 citations
Environmental Science · #Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies #Seedling growth and survival studies #Rangeland and Wildlife Management
paper · doi:10.2307/2260686
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 (...)