Abstract
Climate change directly affects arctic-alpine plants and acute responses to increased temperatures may be seen in their reproductive fitness and germination ability. However, uncertainties prevail in predicting whether a future warmer climate favors or hampers seed germination in high latitude and high altitude soils and seed germination research in such systems has not been able to provide generalizable patterns of response. The available literature on this subject has been conducted at various locations contributing to difficulties in predicting the response of arctic-alpine seeds to climate change. Here, we show that discrepancies in seed collection, dormancy breaking treatments, and germination conditions found in the published literature are possible reasons for our inability to draw large scale conclusions. We explore how these factors influence the results and highlight the fact that many of the previous investigations have reported the effects of warmer temperature, rather than a warmer climate and all the associated complex environmental interactions, on seed germination. We recommend that long-term monitoring of seed response to treatments that mimic the present and future alpine climate is likely to produce more ecologically meaningful insights and suggest several practical steps that researchers can take that would facilitate greater coherence between studies.
Highlights
Germination is one the most critical events in the life-cycle of many plants around the world [1]
Some species find a particular habitat more suitable, whilst other habitats become detrimental for seed germination and continued plant growth
The suitable environment allows the persistence of those adapted species to germinate, grow, and reproduce, maintaining species abundance. This adaptation has been undergoing a rapid transformation in recent years, predominantly due to the effects of global warming bringing significant changes to climatic conditions [6, 7]
Summary
Germination is one the most critical events in the life-cycle of many plants around the world [1]. The suitable environment allows the persistence of those adapted species to germinate, grow, and reproduce, maintaining species abundance This adaptation has been undergoing a rapid transformation in recent years, predominantly due to the effects of global warming bringing significant changes to climatic conditions [6, 7]. Our understanding of how seeds germinate in the warmer world is not comprehensive across various ecosystems, we focus on the results available on alpine and arctic ecosystems This by no means denotes that other ecosystems are less important; the effects of global warming have become more apparent in alpine regions with upward migration of plants being witnessed already [17,18,19], prompting a need to review the literature and use these lessons learned to plan conservation protocols. We attempt to show that there are some inconsistencies in methods employed by previous studies affecting our ability to predict the real-life effects
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
