ArticleAmerican journal of botany2022
The role of maternal age, growth, and environment in shaping offspring performance in an aerial conifer seed bank.
Article in American journal of botany, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Heritability of early seedling growth in Taxus baccata, a declining conifer.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Macro- and micro-geographical genetic variation in early-fitness traits in populations of maritime pine (Pinus pinaster).Annals of botany · 2025Article
- Assessment of seed- and seedling-related traits inJournal of biosciences · 2024Article
- The role of maternal age, growth, and environment in shaping offspring performance in an aerial conifer seed bank.American journal of botany · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
premiseMaternal effects have been demonstrated to affect offspring performance in many organisms, and in plants, seeds are important mediators of these effects. Some woody plant species maintain long-lasting canopy seed banks as an adaptation to wildfires. Importantly, these seeds stored in serotinous cones are produced by the mother plant under varying ontogenetic and physiological conditions.
methodsWe sampled the canopy seed bank of a highly serotinous population of Pinus pinaster to test whether maternal age and growth and the environmental conditions during each crop year affected seed mass and ultimately germination and early survival. After determining retrospectively the year of each seed cohort, we followed germination and early survival in a semi-natural common garden.
resultsSeed mass was related to maternal age and growth at the time of seed production; i.e., slow-growing, older mothers had smaller seeds, and fast-growing, young mothers had larger seeds, which could be interpreted either as a proxy of senescence or as a maternal strategy. Seed mass had a positive effect on germination success, but aside from differences in seed mass, maternal age had a negative effect and diameter had a positive effect on germination timing and subsequent survival.
conclusionsThe results highlight the importance of maternal conditions combined with seed mass in shaping seedling establishment. Our findings open new insights in the offspring performance deriving from long-term canopy seed banks, which may have high relevance for plant adaptation.
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