Understanding Of Plant Responses Research Articles

Primary Metabolic Response of Aristolochia contorta to Simulated Specialist Herbivory under Elevated CO2 Conditions

This study explores how elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) levels affects the growth and defense mechanisms of plants. We focused on Aristolochia contorta Bunge (Aristolochiaceae), a wild plant that exhibits growth reduction under elevated CO2 in the previous study. The plant has Sericinus montela Gray (Papilionidae) as a specialist herbivore. By analyzing primary metabolites, understanding both the growth and defense response of plants to herbivory under elevated CO2 conditions is possible. The experiment was conducted across four groups, combining two CO2 concentration conditions (ambient CO2 and elevated CO2) with two herbivory conditions (herbivory treated and untreated). Although many plants exhibit increased growth under elevated CO2 levels, A. contorta exhibited reduced growth with lower height, dry weight, and total leaf area. Under herbivory, A. contorta triggered both localized and systemic responses. More primary metabolites exhibited significant differences due to herbivory treatment in systemic tissue than local leaves that herbivory was directly treated. Herbivory under elevated CO2 level triggered more significant responses in primary metabolites (17 metabolites) than herbivory under ambient CO2 conditions (five metabolites). Several defense-related metabolites exhibited higher concentrations in the roots and lower concentrations in the leaves in response to the herbivory treatment in the elevated CO2 group. This suggests a potential intensification of defensive responses in the underground parts of the plant under elevated CO2 levels. Our findings underscore the importance of considering both abiotic and biotic factors in understanding plant responses to environmental changes. The adaptive strategies of A. contorta suggest a complex response mechanism to elevated CO2 and herbivory pressures.

Investigating aluminum toxicity effects on callose deposition, oxidative stress, and nutrient homeostasis in banana genotypes.

Aluminum (Al) toxicity poses a significant challenge to agricultural productivity, particularly in acidic soils. The banana crop, predominantly cultivated in tropical and subtropical climates, often grapples with low pH and Al toxicity. This study seeks to explore the differential responses of two banana genotypes with varying Al tolerance (Baodao and Baxi) to Al exposure (100 and 500 µM) for 24 h. Microscopic analysis uncovered distinctive structural modifications in root cells, with Baodao displaying more severe alterations in response to Al stress. There was higher superoxide (O2-.) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production and lipid peroxidation in Baodao indicating enhanced oxidative stress and membrane damage. Al accumulation in root tips was higher in Baxi than Baodao, while the roots of Baodao had a higher accumulation of callose. Nutrient content analysis revealed alterations in ion levels, highlighting the impact of Al exposure on nutrient uptake and homeostasis. In summary, Al differentially affects callose deposition, which, in turn, leads to Al uptake and nutrient homeostasis alteration in two contrasting banana genotypes. This intricate interplay is a key factor in understanding plant responses to aluminum toxicity and can inform strategies for crop improvement and soil management in aluminum-stressed environments.

A review of the potential involvement of small RNAs in transgenerational abiotic stress memory in plants.

Crop production is increasingly threatened by the escalating weather events and rising temperatures associated with global climate change. Plants have evolved adaptive mechanisms, including stress memory, to cope with abiotic stresses such as heat, drought, and salinity. Stress memory involves priming, where plants remember prior stress exposures, providing enhanced responses to subsequent stress events. Stress memory can manifest as somatic, intergenerational, or transgenerational memory, persisting for different durations. The chromatin, a central regulator of gene expression, undergoes modifications like DNA acetylation, methylation, and histone variations in response to abiotic stress. Histone modifications, such as H3K4me3 and acetylation, play crucial roles in regulating gene expression. Abiotic stresses like drought and salinity are significant challenges to crop production, leading to yield reductions. Plant responses to stress involve strategies like escape, avoidance, and tolerance, each influencing growth stages differently. Soil salinity affects plant growth by disrupting water potential, causing ion toxicity, and inhibiting nutrient uptake. Understanding plant responses to these stresses requires insights into histone-mediated modifications, chromatin remodeling, and the role of small RNAs in stress memory. Histone-mediated modifications, including acetylation and methylation, contribute to epigenetic stress memory, influencing plant adaptation to environmental stressors. Chromatin remodeling play a crucial role in abiotic stress responses, affecting the expression of stress-related genes. Small RNAs; miRNAs and siRNAs, participate in stress memory pathways by guiding DNA methylation and histone modifications. The interplay of these epigenetic mechanisms helps plants adapt to recurring stress events and enhance their resilience. In conclusion, unraveling the epigenetic mechanisms in plant responses to abiotic stresses provides valuable insights for developing resilient agricultural techniques. Understanding how plants utilize stress memory, histone modifications, chromatin remodeling, and small RNAs is crucial for designing strategies to mitigate the impact of climate change on crop production and global food security.

Hormonal response to recurrent seasonal stress in coastal and mountain scabiouses growing in their natural habitat: linking ABA and jasmonates with photoprotection.

Plant species distribution across ecosystems is influenced by multiple environmental factors, and recurrent seasonal stress events can act as natural selection agents for specific plant traits and limit species distribution. For that, studies aiming at understanding how environmental constraints affect adaptive mechanisms of taxonomically closely related species are of great interest. We chose two Scabiosa species inhabiting contrasting environments: the coastal scabious S. atropurpurea, typically coping with hot-dry summers in a Mediterranean climate, and the mountain scabious S. columbaria facing cold winters in an oceanic climate. A set of functional traits was examined to assess plant performance in these congeneric species from contrasting natural habitats. Both S. atropurpurea and S. columbaria appeared to be perfectly adapted to their environment in terms of adjustments in stomatal closure, CO2 assimilation rate and water use efficiency over the seasons. However, an unexpected dry period during winter followed by the typical Mediterranean hot-dry summer forced S. atropurpurea plants to deploy a set of photoprotective responses during summer. Aside from reductions in leaf water content and Fv/Fm, photoprotective molecules (carotenoids, α-tocopherol and anthocyanins) per unit of chlorophyll increased, mostly as a consequence of a severe chlorophyll loss. The profiling of stress-related hormones (ABA, salicylic acid and jasmonates) revealed associations between ABA and the bioactive jasmonoyl-isoleucine with the underlying photoprotective response to recurrent seasonal stress in S. atropurpurea. We conclude that jasmonates may be used together with ABA as a functional trait that may, at least in part, help understand plant responses to recurrent seasonal stress in the current frame of global climate change.

Fast Multi-View 3D reconstruction of seedlings based on automatic viewpoint planning

Three-dimensional models of plants provide valuable phenotypic information. Phenotypic measurements of plant structures are essential for monitoring plant growth and understanding plant responses to environmental changes. Existing 3D reconstruction techniques have achieved accurate reconstruction models of some plants such as corn and soybeans. However, several drawbacks exist in current plant 3D reconstruction systems, including high cost, fixed capture perspectives and complex operation. To address these issues and considering the influence of camera capture angles on model reconstruction accuracy, we investigated a viewpoint planning reconstruction method. We designed a plant seedling reconstruction system that utilizes a consumer-grade L515 LiDAR sensor and a precision turntable. We establish a viewpoint rule based on the camera imaging model of the three-dimensional spatial structure of leaves, constructing minimum constraints on the leaf normal vector and the camera optical axis. This enables to determine the optimal capture viewpoint for each leaf to obtain the maximum leaf information. The angle β between the leaf normal vector and the camera optical axis serves as the basis for the turntable rotation, systematically planning the rotation of the turntable to enable the camera to capture the maximum useful leaf information. Unlike static camera-based turntable reconstruction systems that capture images at fixed angle intervals, we plan the rotation of the turntable based on the acquired information. This allows us to obtain more effective point cloud information of plant seedlings from the same or even fewer images, reducing the collection of redundant images and reconstructing more accurate plant seedling 3D models. Additionally, we measured commonly used leaf traits in plant phenotypic studies, such as leaf length, leaf width, and leaf area. The leaf area measured based on the reconstructed seedling model exhibited high accuracy (R2 > 0.99). The results of this study demonstrate that the consumer-grade L515 LiDAR sensor combined with the proposed viewpoint planning method can effectively reconstruct accurate seedling 3D models and measure phenotypic information. Due to the absence of error accumulation caused by adjacent view registration, this approach offers advantages such as shorter reconstruction time, higher efficiency and increased accuracy compared to some multi-view point cloud registration and reconstruction methods. Therefore, this system can be applied to three-dimensional reconstruction and phenotype analysis of plant seedlings due to its high efficiency and accuracy.

Gossypium hirsutum as a Study Species to Understand Plant Responses to Drought Stress

Gossypium hirsutum as a Study Species to Understand Plant Responses to Drought Stress

Mathematical Modeling of Photo- and Thermomorphogenesis in Plants.

Increased day lengths and warm conditions inversely affect plant growth by directly modulating nuclear phyB, ELF3, and COP1 levels. Quantitative measures of the hypocotyl length have been key to gaining a deeper understanding of this complex regulatory network, while similar quantitative data are the foundation for many studies in plant biology. Here, we explore the application of mathematical modeling, specifically ordinary differential equations (ODEs), to understand plant responses to these environmental cues. We provide a comprehensive guide to constructing, simulating, and fitting these models to data, using the law of mass action to study the evolution of molecular species. The fundamental principles of these models are introduced, highlighting their utility in deciphering complex plant physiological interactions and testing hypotheses. This brief introduction will not allow experimentalists without a mathematical background to run their own simulations overnight, but it will help them grasp modeling principles and communicate with more theory-inclined colleagues.

Exploring the responses of crop photosynthesis to CO2 elevation at the molecular, physiological, and morphological levels toward increasing crop production

Exploring the impact of elevated CO2 on photosynthesis is vital for understanding plant responses to climate change. In C3 plants, elevated CO2 concentrations generally enhance CO2 assimilation by increasing chloroplast CO2 concentration. However, the underlying mechanisms are complex since photosynthesis involves multiple physiological processes operating at different time scales and varying among plant species. In this review, we focused on the responses of key photosynthetic processes in crop, including CO2 diffusion conductances such as stomatal conductance (gs), mesophyll conductance (gm), photochemical reactions, the Calvin-Benson cycle, and related metabolic pathways. Short-term exposure to elevated CO2 often decreases gs and gm while increasing the electron transport rate. However, long-term exposure to elevated CO2 can decrease photosynthetic capacity due to coordinated downregulation of multiple processes, particularly when the sink‒source ratio declines. To enhance plant productivity under elevated CO2, it is crucial to maintain or enhance sink activity and understand the CO2 response mechanisms at the molecular, physiological, and morphological levels. This review provides an update on the short- and long-term responses of gs, gm, electron transport system, and carbon assimilation metabolism to elevated CO2. Furthermore, it offers a perspective on improving crop production in the future with elevated CO2 levels.

Effects of Environmental Factors on Plant Productivity in the Mountain Grassland of the Mountain Zebra National Park, Eastern Cape, South Africa

The relationship between plant productivity, measured according to biomass and species richness, is a fundamental focal point in community ecology, as it provides the basis for understanding plant responses or adaptive strategies. Although studies have been conducted on plant biomass and environmental factors, research concerning mountainous grassland areas is scarce. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine the influence of environmental factors on aboveground plant biomass in the mountainous grassland of the Mountain Zebra National Park, South Africa. Biomass distribution was uneven within the park, owing to certain species having relatively higher biomass values. These differences may be attributed to the chemical and physical properties of the soil, including carbon and nitrogen content, soil pH, and soil texture (sand, silt, and coarse fragments). A disc pasture meter was used to collect biomass data. Multiple regression analysis revealed that most environmental factors did not significantly influence plant biomass. The only environmental factor influencing plant biomass was soil pH; the influences of other factors were not statistically significant. The results of this study elucidate the interactions of environmental factors with plant biomass. Future research could investigate how environmental factors influence plant biomass, both below and above the ground in mountainous grassland.

Seedling establishment in a deciduous and an evergreen oak under simulated climate change

Climate change constitutes a major threat to global biodiversity and to the success of natural and assisted tree regeneration. Oaks are among the most emblematic tree species in the Northern Hemisphere, so it is crucial to understand the impact of changing climate on seedling recruitment and early development. In this study, we investigated the effect of air warming on the early development of one deciduous species – Quercus faginea – and one evergreen species – Quercus ilex subsp. ballota. Acorns of both species were seeded in an alluvial valley in southern Spain and subjected to an air warming treatment with Open-Top Chambers (OTC), which increased air temperature by 2 °C. We monitored seedling emergence, growth, chlorophyll concentration, and mortality in the first growing season. The simulated climate change treatment accelerated plant emergence in early spring, reduced spring shoot growth, and increased mortality from ∼ 23 % in control plots to ∼ 40 % inside OTCs. Although Q. ilex and Q. faginea are sympatric species, Q. faginea showed lower performance under simulated climate change in terms of growth. In addition, acorn fresh weight was positively related with the probability and speed of emergence (only for Q. faginea), seedling size, and relative chlorophyll content, and plants that emerged earlier had a greater likelihood of surviving. In short, larger acorns partly counter-balanced the negative impact of temperature increase on plants. This study highlights the importance of understanding plant response to climate change both to forecast potential changes in species composition and to choose adequate species and traits such as acorn size in restoration projects.

Integrative transcriptomic analysis deciphering the role of rice bHLH transcription factor Os04g0301500 in mediating responses to biotic and abiotic stresses.

Understanding the signaling pathways activated in response to these combined stresses and their crosstalk is crucial to breeding crop varieties with dual or multiple tolerances. However, most studies to date have predominantly focused on individual stress factors, leaving a significant gap in understanding plant responses to combined biotic and abiotic stresses. The bHLH family plays a multifaceted regulatory role in plant response to both abiotic and biotic stresses. In order to comprehensively identify and analyze the bHLH gene family in rice, we identified putative OsbHLHs by multi-step homolog search, and phylogenic analysis, molecular weights, isoelectric points, conserved domain screening were processed using MEGAX version 10.2.6. Following, integrative transcriptome analysis using 6 RNA-seq data including Xoo infection, heat, and cold stress was processed. The results showed that 106 OsbHLHs were identified and clustered into 17 clades. Os04g0301500 and Os04g0489600 are potential negative regulators of Xoo resistance in rice. In addition, Os04g0301500 was involved in non-freezing temperatures (around 4°C) but not to 10°C cold stresses, suggesting a complex interplay with temperature signaling pathways. The study concludes that Os04g0301500 may play a crucial role in integrating biotic and abiotic stress responses in rice, potentially serving as a key regulator of plant resilience under changing environmental conditions, which could be important for further multiple stresses enhancement and molecular breeding through genetic engineering in rice.

Seasonal pigment fluctuation in diploid and polyploid Arabidopsis revealed by machine learning-based phenotyping method PlantServation

Long-term field monitoring of leaf pigment content is informative for understanding plant responses to environments distinct from regulated chambers but is impractical by conventional destructive measurements. We developed PlantServation, a method incorporating robust image-acquisition hardware and deep learning-based software that extracts leaf color by detecting plant individuals automatically. As a case study, we applied PlantServation to examine environmental and genotypic effects on the pigment anthocyanin content estimated from leaf color. We processed >4 million images of small individuals of four Arabidopsis species in the field, where the plant shape, color, and background vary over months. Past radiation, coldness, and precipitation significantly affected the anthocyanin content. The synthetic allopolyploid A. kamchatica recapitulated the fluctuations of natural polyploids by integrating diploid responses. The data support a long-standing hypothesis stating that allopolyploids can inherit and combine the traits of progenitors. PlantServation facilitates the study of plant responses to complex environments termed “in natura”.

Seeds of Hope: Unearthing the Potential of Plant Regeneration in a Warming World

“Plant Regeneration from Seeds: A Global Warming Perspective” delves into the fascinating and crucial topic of understanding plant responses to the environmental challenges posed by climate change. The comprehensive volume offers a rich tapestry of information and analysis, leaving the reader with a deep appreciation for the complex interplay of factors that influence plant regeneration and the potential consequences for ecosystems around the world.

Signaling and crosstalk of rhizobacterial and plant hormones that mediate abiotic stress tolerance in plants.

Agricultural areas exhibiting numerous abiotic stressors, such as elevated water stress, temperatures, and salinity, have grown as a result of climate change. As such, abiotic stresses are some of the most pressing issues in contemporary agricultural production. Understanding plant responses to abiotic stressors is important for global food security, climate change adaptation, and improving crop resilience for sustainable agriculture, Over the decades, explorations have been made concerning plant tolerance to these environmental stresses. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and their phytohormones are some of the players involved in developing resistance to abiotic stress in plants. Several studies have investigated the part of phytohormones in the ability of plants to withstand and adapt to non-living environmental factors, but very few have focused on rhizobacterial hormonal signaling and crosstalk that mediate abiotic stress tolerance in plants. The main objective of this review is to evaluate the functions of PGPR phytohormones in plant abiotic stress tolerance and outline the current research on rhizobacterial hormonal communication and crosstalk that govern plant abiotic stress responses. The review also includes the gene networks and regulation under diverse abiotic stressors. The review is important for understanding plant responses to abiotic stresses using PGPR phytohormones and hormonal signaling. It is envisaged that PGPR offer a useful approach to increasing plant tolerance to various abiotic stresses. However, further studies can reveal the unclear patterns of hormonal interactions between plants and rhizobacteria that mediate abiotic stress tolerance.

Morphological and Stomata Characteristics of Trembesi (Samanea saman (Jacq.) Merr.) Leaves as Green Plants in Padang City, Indonesia

Greening along roads can be an alternative solution to overcome air pollution in urban areas. Direct contact of plants with pollutant particles in the air will affect the condition of plants, especially on leaves. Knowledge of morphological characteristics and stomata on leaves that have the potential to absorb pollutants is the basis for understanding plant responses to environmental changes. This research is descriptive research conducted in September-December 2021 with leaf samples taken in the area of ​​PT Semen Padang, Padang State University, and Andalas University forests. Data were analyzed by t test level of 5%. The results showed that the morphological characteristics of trembesi leaves in the PT Semen Padang and Padang State University areas had significant differences in the aspects of the number of leaflets, leaf length, leaf width, not significantly different in the length of the mother petiole and the number of leaf branch bones and the characteristics of the stomata did not show any difference which is evident from the aspect of stomata length and stomata density. The morphological characteristics of trembesi leaves in the Padang State University and Andalas University forests showed significant differences in the length of the mother petiole, the number of leaflets, and the number of leaf veins, there was no significant difference in leaf length and leaf width and showed a significant difference in the aspect of stomata length, but did not show a significant difference in terms of stomata density. Morphological characteristics of trembesi leaves in the PT Semen Padang area and Andalas University forest showed significant differences in the length of the mother petiole, number of leaflets, leaf length, leaf width, and number of leaf veins and did not show significant differences in terms of stomata length and stomata density.

Connecting the dots: concurrent assessment of water flows and pools to better understand plant responses to drought.

Journal Article Accepted manuscript Connecting the dots: concurrent assessment of water flows and pools to better understand plant responses to drought Get access Jordi Martínez-Vilalta, Jordi Martínez-Vilalta CREAF, E08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, SpainUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelona, E08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, Spain Corresponding author: (Jordi.Martinez.Vilalta@uab.cat) Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Rafael Poyatos Rafael Poyatos CREAF, E08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, SpainUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelona, E08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, Spain Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Tree Physiology, tpad076, https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/tpad076 Published: 21 June 2023 Article history Received: 17 April 2023 Revision received: 08 June 2023 Published: 21 June 2023

Variation in the Functional Traits of Forest Vegetation along Compound Habitat Gradients in Different Climatic Zones in China

Investigating functional plant traits is essential for understanding plant responses and adaptations to global climate change and ecosystem functions. Synchronous observations of multiple plant traits across multiple sites are rare. Here, we obtained community, functional trait, and environmental data for different forest vegetation types in China’s tropical, subtropical, warm-temperate, and cold-temperate zones. Using principal component (PC) analysis, we constructed a composite–habitat gradient axis of biotic and abiotic factors across different climatic zones, differentiated functional trait compositions along the axis and their driving factors, and reached three main conclusions. (1) At the community level, the community-weighted mean and variance of each trait level differed across the climatic zones. Specific leaf areas and leaf phosphorus contents decreased with increasing PC1 values, whereas community-weighted means and variances of leaf dry-matter contents, leaf nitrogen-to-phosphorus ratios, and wood densities significantly increased with increasing PC1 values. However, the leaf nitrogen content varied along the PC1 axis. Both the community-weighted skewness and kurtosis of functional traits increased significantly with increasing PC1 values for the composite habitat gradient across the climatic zones. (2) The weighted mean, variance, skewness, and kurtosis of each functional trait exhibited different patterns on the composite habitat gradient PC2 axis than on the PC1 axis across the climatic zones, and the correlation was weak. (3) Most functional traits correlated significantly with the community-weighted mean and variance, kurtosis, and skewness. Therefore, the different functional trait compositions of forest communities in different climatic zones reflected trait convergence caused by the environment and trait differences caused by species competition in response to local-scale filtering.

Updating the dual C and O isotope-Gas-exchange model: A concept to understand plant responses to the environment and its implications for tree rings.

The combined study of carbon (C) and oxygen (O) isotopes in plant organic matter has emerged as a powerful tool for understanding plant functional responses to environmental change. The approach relies on established relationships between leaf gas exchange and isotopic fractionation to derive a series of model scenarios that can be used to infer changes in photosynthetic assimilation and stomatal conductance driven by changes in environmental parameters (CO2 , water availability, air humidity, temperature, nutrients). We review the mechanistic basis for a conceptual model, in light of recently published research, and discuss where isotopic observations do not match our current understanding of plant physiological response to the environment. We demonstrate that (1) the model was applied successfully in many, but not all studies; (2)although originally conceived for leaf isotopes, the model has been applied extensively to tree-ring isotopes in the context of tree physiology and dendrochronology. Where isotopic observations deviate from physiologically plausible conclusions, this mismatch between gas exchange and isotope response provides valuable insights into underlying physiological processes. Overall, we found that isotope responses can be grouped into situations of increasing resource limitation versus higher resource availability. The dual-isotope model helps to interpret plant responses to a multitude of environmental factors.

Spatiotemporal patterns of wheat response to Pyrenophora tritici-repentis in asymptomatic regions revealed by transcriptomic and X-ray fluorescence microscopy analyses.

Pathogen attacks elicit dynamic and widespread molecular responses in plants. While our understanding of plant responses has advanced considerably, little is known of the molecular responses in the asymptomatic "green" regions (AGR) adjoining lesions. Here, we explore gene expression data and high-resolution elemental imaging to report the spatiotemporal changes in the AGR of susceptible and moderately resistant wheat cultivars infected with a necrotrophic fungal pathogen, Pyrenophora tritici-repentis (Ptr). We show, with improved spatiotemporal resolution, that calcium oscillations are modified in the susceptible cultivar, resulting in "frozen" host defence signals at the mature disease stage, and silencing of the host's recognition and defence mechanisms which would otherwise protect it from further attacks. In contrast, Ca accumulation and heightened defence response was observed in the moderately resistant cultivar in the later stage of disease development. Furthermore, in the susceptible interaction, the AGR was unable to recover post disease disruption. Our targeted sampling technique also enabled detection of eight previously predicted proteinaceous effectors in addition to the known ToxA effector. Collectively, our results highlight the benefits of spatially resolved molecular analysis and nutrient mapping to provide high-resolution spatiotemporal snapshots of host-pathogen interactions, paving the way for detangling complex disease interactions in plants.

Sensitivity of seed germination to water stress in high-altitude populations of a threatened palm species.

Divergence in seed germination patterns among populations of the same species is important for understanding plant responses to environmental gradients and potential plant sensitivity to climate change. In order to test the responses to flooding and decreasing water potentials we germinated and grew seeds of three habitats of Euterpe edulis Mart. occurring along an altitudinal gradient, over a period of three years. Seed germination and root growth were evaluated under different water availability treatments: control, flood, -0.4MPa, -0.8MPa, for 2012, 2013 and 2014 years, and in the last year of the experiment (2014), -1.0MPa and -1.5MPa. Seeds of the montane habitat did not germinate in the flood treatment. Seed germination of all three habitats decreased in the -1.5MPa treatment. Montane habitat had the lowest seed germination at -1.5MPa. Time required for half of the seeds to germinate increased up to -0.8MPa. Seeds of montane habitats germinated slower in all the treatments. The only difference observed in seed germination synchrony was an increase in submontane population in flooding treatment. However, synchrony decreased at the lowest water potential treatments. Roots of montane population were more vigorous in most treatments, except in -0.8 MPa. The unusual ability of seeds to germinate at low water potentials might be related to early seed germination at the onset of the rainy season, potentially decreasing seed predation pressure. Seeds of the montane population were more sensitive to both types of water stress. A predicted increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme high rainfall or drought events may predispose early stages of this population to adverse factors, which might negatively affect population viability along elevational in future climate change scenarios.