Seedling size and cotyledon retention have important influences on survival of defoliated seedlings of Pterocarpus erinaceus Poir. (African rosewood)
Paper Details
Seedling size and cotyledon retention have important influences on survival of defoliated seedlings of Pterocarpus erinaceus Poir. (African rosewood)
Abstract
Browsing by animals is a recognized bottleneck to the establishment success of tree seedlings. Pterocarpus erinaceus may be particularly susceptible to browsing as a result of being a highly palatable fodder plant. The fate of browsed seedlings is often uncertain because factors that determine post-defoliation survival among tree seedlings are unclear. We conducted a plant house experiment employing a cross-factored three factor design that involved two levels each of defoliation, seedling size and cotyledon retention to test three hypotheses as follows: 1. defoliation decreases survival of P. erinaceus seedlings; 2. larger seedlings survive defoliation better than smaller ones; 3. retention of cotyledons enhances survival and growth of defoliated seedlings. Consistent with hypotheses 1 and 2, defoliation decreased survival of P. erinaceus seedlings and this adverse effect was found to exist almost entirely among small seedlings. The odds of a defoliated seedling surviving was 13.4 times lower if it was small than if it was large. Partly consistent with hypothesis 3, seedlings that retained their cotyledons had a higher number of new leaves than seedlings in which cotyledons were excised, but direct effect of cotyledon retention on seedling survival was not found. Implications of findings are discussed.
Abdul Rahman AA, Ihaza OC, Oladele FA. 2008. Survey of some economic trees and their exploitation in Irepodun Local Government area of Kwara State, Nigeria. BEST Journal 6(1), 57-60.
Armstrong DP, Westoby M. 1993. Seedlings from large seeds tolerate defoliation better: a test using phylogenetically independent contrasts. Ecology 74, 1092–1100. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1940479.
Asquith NW, Wright SJ, Clauss MJ. 1997. Does mammal community composition control recruitment in Neotropical forests? Evidence from Panama. Ecology 78, 941-946. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/00129658(1997)078[0941 : DMCCCR]2.0.CO;2
Barchuk AH, Campos EB, Oviedo C, Díaz MP. 2006. Supervivencia y crecimiento de plántulas de especiesleñosasdel Chaco Áridosometidas a remoción de la biomasaérea. Ecology Austral 16, 47-61.
Bond WJ, Midgley JJ. 2003. The evolutionary ecology of sprouting. International Journal of Plant Science 164, 103-114.
Bonfil C. 1998. The effects of seed size, cotyledon reserves, and herbivory on seedling survival and growth in Quercus rugosa and Q. lausina (Fabaceae). American Journal of Botany 85(1), 79-87.
Bonkoungou E. 1999. Semi-arid lowlands of West Africa Programme, BP 320, Bamako, Mali (available at: factnet.winrock.org/fnrm/factnet/factpub/FACTSH/P_erinaceus.html).
Canham CD, Kobe RK, Latty EF, Chazdon RL. 1999. Interspecific and intraspecific variation in tree seedling survival: effects of allocation to roots versus carbohydrate reserves. Oecologia, 121, 1-11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s004420050900
Castro Diez PJP, Puyravaud JH, Cornelissen C, Villar Salvadore P. 1998. Stem anatomy and relative growth rate in seedling of wide range of woody plant-species and types. Oecologia 116, 57-66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s004420050563
Del Tredici P. 2001. Sprouting in temperate trees: a morphological and ecological review. Botany Review, 67, 121-140. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02858075
Duvall CS. 2008. Pterocarpus erinaceus Poir. In: Louppe, D., Oteng-Amoako, A.A. & Brink, M. (Editors). Prota 7(1) Timbers/Bois d’œuvre 1. [CD-Rom]. PROTA, Wageningen, Netherlands.
Fenner M, Thompson K. 2005. The ecology of seeds. 2nd Edn., Cambridge. Book http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511614101
Fenner M. 1987. Seedlings. New Phytologist 106 (Suppl.): 35–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.1987.tb04681.x
Kitajima K. 2002. Do shade-tolerant tropical tree seedlings depend longer on seed reserves? Functional growth analysis of three Bignoniaceae species Functional Ecology 16(4), 433-444. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2435.2002.00641.x
Kitajima K. 2003. Impact of cotyledon and leaf removal on seedling survival in Tree species with contrasting cotyledon functions. Biotropica 33(3), 429-434. http://dx.doi.org/10.1646/02154
Kitajima K, Augspurger CK. 1989. Seed and seedling ecology of a monocarpic tropical tree, Tachigalia versicolor. Ecology 70, 1102-1114. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1941379
Leishman MR, Wright IJ, Moles AT, Westoby M. 2000. The evolutionary ecology of seed size. In: Fenner M (ed.), Seeds – Ecology of Regeneration in Plant Communities. CAB International, Wallingford, 31-57 P.
Li Q, Ma K. 2003. Factors affecting establishment of Quercus liaotungensis Koidz. Under mature mixed oak forest over-story and in shrub land. Forest Ecology and Management 176, 133-146. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0378-1127(02)00274-8
Moles AT, Westoby M. 2004. What do seedlings die from and what are the implications for evolution of seed size? Oikos, 106, 193-199. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0030-1299.2004.13101.x
Orwa C, Mutua A, Kindt R, Jamnadass R, Anthony S. 2009. Agroforestry tree Database: a tree reference and selection guide version 4.0. World Agroforestry Centre, Kenya.
Paciorek CJ, Condit R, Hubbell P, Foster RB. 2000. The demographics of resprouting in tree and shrub species of a moist tropical forest. Journal of Ecology 88, 765-777.
Raven PH, Evert RF, Eichhorn SE. 2005. Biology of plants, 7th edition, W.H. Freeman and company Publishers, New York, ISBN 0-7167-1007-2.
Smythe N. 1978. The natural history of the Central American agouti (Dqproctapunctata). Smithson Contrib. Zoology, 157, 1-52. UK: Cambridge University Press.
Westoby M, Leishman M, Lord J, Poorter H, Schoen JD. 1996. Comparative ecology of seed size and dispersal. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B. 351, 1309-1318. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1996.0114
Nacoulma BMI, Traoré S, Hahn K. Thiombiano A. 2011. Impact of land use types on population structure and extent of bark and foliage harvest of Afzelia africana and Pterocarpus erinaceus in Eastern Burkina Faso. International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation 3(3), 62-72.
Hamza Issifu, Adam Jaleelu, Rikiatu Husseini, 2015. Seedling size and cotyledon retention have important influences on survival of defoliated seedlings of Pterocarpus erinaceus Poir. (African rosewood). Int. J. Biosci., 7(5), 30-37.
Copyright © 2015 by the Authors. This article is an open access article and distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license.