Posidonia oceanica seeds from drift origin: Viability, germination and early plantlet development

Recruitment ofPosidonia oceanicafrom seeds is infre-quent owing to the rare and unpredictable occurrence ofsexual reproduction. However, in years of high reproduc-tive success, ample supplies of seeds become availablein drifting fruit; this could be a useful source of materialfor seabed restoration....

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Belzunce, Miriam, Navarro, Rafael M., Rapoport, Hava F.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2008
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/251076
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/251076
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Posidonia oceanica
Seagrass
Seed
Seedling
Viability
Descripción
Sumario:Recruitment ofPosidonia oceanicafrom seeds is infre-quent owing to the rare and unpredictable occurrence ofsexual reproduction. However, in years of high reproduc-tive success, ample supplies of seeds become availablein drifting fruit; this could be a useful source of materialfor seabed restoration. In this study we introduce andcombine viability tests and culture procedures for eval-uating this material. Three different groups of collectedfruitsrepresentingaphenologicalormaturationsequence were tested for seed viability with tetrazolium.We also examined the effects of storage on the germ-ination and development of seedling root and shootsystems. The younger groups showed good (67–86%)germination and survival, with the tetrazolium viabilitytest proving useful for predicting these processes. How-ever, although a strong correlation between fruit andseed weight was observed, higher values of these para-meters did not confer greater germination capacity. Theseeds of fruits collected late in the season were moredeveloped and plantlet roots and shoots grew fasterunder culture, but survival after 4 weeks was reduced(40%). Under the conditions tested, viability was highlyreduced and there was no final seedling survival follow-ing storage.