Seedling Ecology and Evolution

Seedling Ecology and Evolution PDF

Author: Mary Allessio Leck

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2008-09-18

Total Pages: 514

ISBN-13: 0521873053

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Seedlings are highly sensitive to their environment. After seeds, they typically suffer the highest mortality of any life history stage. This book provides a comprehensive exploration of the seedling stage of the plant life cycle. It considers the importance of seedlings in plant communities; environmental factors with special impact on seedlings; the morphological and physiological diversity of seedlings including mycorrhizae; the relationship of the seedling with other life stages; seedling evolution; and seedlings in human altered ecosystems, including deserts, tropical rainforests, and habitat restoration projects. The diversity of seedlings is portrayed by including specialised groups like orchids, bromeliads, and parasitic and carnivorous plants. Discussions of physiology, morphology, evolution and ecology are brought together to focus on how and why seedlings are successful. This important text sets the stage for future research and is valuable to graduate students and researchers in plant ecology, botany, agriculture and conservation.

Seedling Ecology and Evolution

Seedling Ecology and Evolution PDF

Author: Mary Allessio Leck

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2008-09-18

Total Pages: 536

ISBN-13: 1316583112

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Seedlings are highly sensitive to their environment. After seeds, they typically suffer the highest mortality of any life history stage. This book provides a comprehensive exploration of the seedling stage of the plant life cycle. It considers the importance of seedlings in plant communities; environmental factors with special impact on seedlings; the morphological and physiological diversity of seedlings including mycorrhizae; the relationship of the seedling with other life stages; seedling evolution; and seedlings in human altered ecosystems, including deserts, tropical rainforests, and habitat restoration projects. The diversity of seedlings is portrayed by including specialised groups like orchids, bromeliads, and parasitic and carnivorous plants. Discussions of physiology, morphology, evolution and ecology are brought together to focus on how and why seedlings are successful. This important text sets the stage for future research and is valuable to graduate students and researchers in plant ecology, botany, agriculture and conservation.

Seeds

Seeds PDF

Author: Carol C. Baskin

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 684

ISBN-13: 9780120802630

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Seeds: Ecology, Biogeography, and Evolution of Dormancy and Germination provides a working hypothesis of the ecological and environmental conditions under which carious kinds of seed dormancy have developed. It also presents the seed germination of morethan 3500 species of trees, shrubs, vines, and herbaceous species.

Seed Ecology

Seed Ecology PDF

Author: M.W. Fenner

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 159

ISBN-13: 9400948441

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book is about the regeneration of plants from seed under field conditions. It attempts to give a reasonably balanced overview of the many aspects of this broad topic. The first chapter introduces some general ideas about reproduction in plants. Subsequent chapters deal with the early stages in the life of a plant, from ovule to established seedling, in a more or less chronological order. The final chapter shows how the data on regeneration requirements of different species can be used to explain a number of important characteristics of whole plant communities. The study of the ecological aspects of reproduction by seed touches on a range of issues of current interest in biology. A discussion of seed size and number involves a consideration of the concepts of resource allocation, life cycles and strategies. The in teractions between plants and animals seen in pollination, seed dispersal and predation provide excellent material for the study of coevolution. Investigations on regeneration from seed have greatly our understanding of the causes and maintenance of species added to diversity. The reader will find that virtually all the experiments and field observations described in this book are conceptually very simple. Many of them merely required numerous careful measurements.

Seed Fate

Seed Fate PDF

Author: J. E. Lambert

Publisher: CABI

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 9780851990729

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book presents current knowledge of seed fate in both natural and human-disturbed landscapes, from various regions of the world. Habitats considered range from mountain and arid deserts in the temperate zone, to savanna and lowland rainforests in tropical regions of the world. Particular attention is paid to plant diversity conservation when seed removal is affected by factors such as hunting, habitat fragmentation or intensive logging. Contributors include leading scientists involved in research on seed ecology and on animal-plant relationships from the perspective of both primary and secondary seed dispersal, and predation.

Seeds

Seeds PDF

Author: M. (Ed.) FENNER

Publisher:

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 410

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Reproductive allocation in plants; The evolutionary ecology of seed size; Maternal effects on seeds during development; The ecology of seed dispersal; Animals as seed dispersers; Fruits and frugivory; Seed predators and plant populations dynamics; Dormancy, viability and longevity; The functional ecology of soil seed banks; Seed responses to light; The role of temperature in the regulation of seed dormancy and germination; Effect of chemical environment on seed germination; Role of fire in regeneration from seed; Ecology of seedling regeneration; The contribution of seedling regeneration to the structure and dynamics of plant communities, ecosystems and larger units of landscape; Gaps and seedling colonization.

Seeds

Seeds PDF

Author: Michael Fenner

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Reproductive allocation and reproductive effort in plants; Maternal effects on seeds during development; The ecology of seed dispersal; Animals as seed dispersers; Fruits and frugivory; Seed predators and plant populations dynamics; Longevity, viability and dormancy; The functional ecology of seed banks; Seed responses to light; The role of temperature in germination ecophysiology; Effect of chemical environment on seed germination; The contribution of seedling regeneration to the structure and dynamics of plant communities and larger units of landscape.

The Ecology of Seeds

The Ecology of Seeds PDF

Author: Michael Fenner

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2005-02-24

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9780521653688

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

What determines the number and size of the seeds produced by a plant? How often should it reproduce them? How often should a plant produce them? Why and how are seeds dispersed, and what are the implications for the diversity and composition of vegetation? These are just some of the questions tackled in this wide-ranging review of the role of seeds in the ecology of plants. The authors bring together information on the ecological aspects of seed biology, starting with a consideration of reproductive strategies in seed plants and progressing through the life cycle, covering seed maturation, dispersal, storage in the soil, dormancy, germination, seedling establishment, and regeneration in the field. The text encompasses a wide range of concepts of general relevance to plant ecology, reflecting the central role that the study of seed ecology has played in elucidating many fundamental aspects of plant community function.

Frugivory and seed dispersal: ecological and evolutionary aspects

Frugivory and seed dispersal: ecological and evolutionary aspects PDF

Author: T.H. Fleming

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 9401117497

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Any scientific discipline needs a theoretical framework to guide its development and to sharpen the questions its researchers pursue. In biology, evolution is the grand theoretical framework, and an his torical perspective is necessary to understand present-day biological conditions. In its formative years, the modern study of the fruit-frugivore mutualism was guided by the 'specialist-generalist' paradigm developed by D. Snow, D. McKey, and H. Howe. Howe reviews the current status of this evolution ary paradigm and points out that it has been dismissed by many workers before being adequately tested. This is because ecologists working with the tropical plants and frugivorous birds for which the paradigm was originally developed rarely measure the seed dispersal effectiveness of different disperser species. He indicates that this paradigm still has heuristic value and suggests that several additional ecological paradigms, including the concept ofkeystone species ofplants and frugivores and the role that frugivores play in density-dependent mortality in tropical trees, are worth studying. The concept of seed dispersal quality has been central to discussions of fruit-frugivore coevolution. Schupp thoroughly reviews data bearing on this concept, constructs a hierarchical framework for viewing disperser effectiveness, and points out that disperser effectiveness depends on both the quantity and quality of seed dispersal. Effectiveness, in turn, affects both evolutionary and ecological relationships between dispersers and their food plants.