New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts
M00042Received 4 July 2000; accepted 24 August 2000
Burial limits to the emergence of aquatic plant propagules
TONY M. DUGDALE
MARY D. DE WINTON
JOHN S. CLAYTON
National Institute of Water & Atmospheric
Research Ltd
P. O. Box 11 115
Hamilton, New Zealand
email: t.dugdale@niwa.cri.nz
Abstract The sediment depth limits to germling emergence were
determined for five common New Zealand submerged plants. A significant trend
was observed of declining emergence with increasing burial depth. Emergence
from small oospores (13-16 μg) of
Nitella pseudoflabellata A.
Br. and
Nitella leptostachys A. Br. was limited to the surface sediment
(<25 mm).
Potamogeton ochreatus Raoul seed (1460 μg) emerged
from <50 mm depth.
Chara corallina Willd. oospores (148 μg)
emerged from burial depths of at least 50-75 mm, while
Chara
globularis Thuill. oospores (50 μg) were able to emerge from the maximum
tested depth of 100 mm. The observation that burial limits to emergence by
Chara species were at least twice that of the much larger
P.
ochreatus seed is at odds with theory that the size of propagule reserves
act to determine emergence ability. However, it is in keeping with suggested
energy efficiency of shoot extension in the macroalgae versus vascular species.
Results indicate that assessment of submerged seed banks should concentrate on
the upper 50 mm of sediment which contains most "ecologically active"
propagules.
Keywords germling emergence; germination; charophytes;
oospores; Potamogeton ochreatus
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2001, Vol. 35: 147-154
0028-8330/01/3501-0147 $7.00 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand 2001
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (498K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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