{"id":2712,"date":"2010-02-19T10:57:17","date_gmt":"2010-02-19T14:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=2712"},"modified":"2010-02-19T10:57:17","modified_gmt":"2010-02-19T14:57:17","slug":"large-seeds-take-the-advantage-in-stressful-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2010\/02\/19\/large-seeds-take-the-advantage-in-stressful-conditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Large seeds take the advantage in stressful conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n<\/p>

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/dt>\n
The coconut tree\u2019s large seed is
\nbetter adapted to drought and
\nshade than smaller seeds.<\/span><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

It is generally believed that, when competing for the same resources, large plant seeds beat out small seeds regardless of the growing conditions. But according to researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, large seeds actually have the advantage in stressful conditions\u2014such as during a drought or in the shade\u2014while small seeds thrive in abundant sun and water.<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>study<\/span><\/a>, published in this week\u2019s edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/em>, explains the evolutionary advantages of producing large, tolerant seeds versus a large amount of small seeds. This variation, says the study\u2019s author Helene Muller-Landau, allows species to coexist \u00a0in regeneration sites that vary in stressfulness.<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/madbuster75\/<\/a> \/ CC BY-NC-ND 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n

Muller-Landau, H. (2010). The tolerance-fecundity trade-off and the maintenance of diversity in seed size Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/span> DOI: 10.1073\/pnas.0911637107<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The coconut tree\u2019s large seed is better adapted to drought and shade than smaller seeds. It is generally believed that, when competing for the same resources, large plant seeds beat out small seeds regardless of the growing conditions. But according to researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, large seeds actually have the advantage in stressful conditions\u2014such as during a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[146,515,516,517],"class_list":["post-2712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research","tag-adaptation","tag-growing-conditions","tag-regeneration","tag-seed-size"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}