Studies find the seeds of a forest's renewal after wildfire, drought
Seed production of more than 700 trees species worldwide quantified,
assessed with climate lens

Date:
May 2, 2022
Source:
Duke University
Summary:
By quantifying the seed production of more than 700 trees species
worldwide and how each species' productivity can vary by location,
two new studies can help boost the success of efforts to replant
and restore forests after devastating wildfires, droughts or other
disturbances. The studies, which synthesize data on species from
the tropics to subarctic regions, are the first to quantify global
patterns in tree seed production.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A forest's ability to regenerate after devastating wildfires, droughts or
other disturbances depends largely on seed production. Findings from two
new studies led by Duke University researchers could boost recovery and replanting after these disasters by providing foresters with new guidance
on which trees species produce more seeds and how their productivity
can vary from location to location.


========================================================================== "Knowing which species produce more seeds and in which habitats helps
us better understand how to manage for seed trees and optimize forest regeneration, especially in areas where seed is limited, like much of the western U.S.," said James S. Clark, Nicholas Distinguished Professor
of Environmental Science at Duke, who was corresponding author on
both papers.

Clark and his colleagues published their peer-reviewed studies May 2 in
Nature Communications and April 23 inEcology Letters.

The studies come at a time of growing concern about many forests' ability
to recover from increasingly frequent and severe droughts and wildfires
linked to climate change and increased harvesting to meet growing human
demand for wood and other timber products.

On April 25, the Biden Administration announced a new initiative in which
the departments of Agriculture and Interior will team with states, tribes,
and the private sector to increase federal cone and seed collection and seedling nursery capacity, with the goal of expanding forest replanting programs, especially in Western timberlands burnt by recent wildfires.

"Our findings, which are the first to establish global patterns in tree
seed production and quantify how many seeds different species produce
under different conditions, could be very useful for these types of
forest management and renewal initiatives worldwide," Clark said.



==========================================================================
The studies synthesize data on seed production for more than 700 species
- - from the tropics to subarctic regions -- and shed new light on how
tree fecundity and seed supply contribute to forest regeneration and biodiversity in different climatic zones, he said. That knowledge is
essential to understanding the evolution of forest species and how they
respond to losses.

One of the most unexpected findings from the studies is that trees in
the wet tropics collectively produce 250 times more seeds than those in
dry boreal forests.

The fact that there are more big trees in the wet tropics and they
produce, on average, 100 times more seeds than trees of the same size
in boreal regions, may explain why species interactions are so intense
in tropical forests, Clark said.

Another key finding is that seed production is not constrained by
seed size.

This dispels a popular assumption that species that produce larger
seeds must produce proportionately fewer of them and, as a result,
be more susceptible to loss.

"Not true," Clark said. "While trees that have larger seeds do produce
fewer than trees with small seeds, we found they nonetheless produce
more than previously believed. When you multiply the number of seeds
by seed size, you find that the big-seed species are generating more reproductive output overall." A third intriguing finding is that
gymnosperms, or conifers, have lower seed production than angiosperms,
or flowering trees, possibly because gymnosperms expend so much energy
on making protective cones for their seeds. Knowing this can help guide
the replanting and management of many of the Western forests scotched
by recent wildfires, Clark said.



==========================================================================
It also may yield a clue to help solve Darwin's famous "abominable
mystery" of why so many species of flowering plants developed during
the Cretaceous Period, 145.5 million to 65.5 million years ago, while
most other species (other than dinosaurs) lagged.

"This is the first time we've had evidence that links seed production
directly to species fitness," Clark said. "It may be that high seed
production is what made flowering plants fit enough to flourish and evolve under the trying conditions of the Cretaceous, just as it does today." Researchers from 70 institutions contributed to the Nature Communications paper. Principal funding came from the National Science Foundation, the
Belmont Forum, NASA, and France's Programme d'Investissement d'Avenir
("Make Our Planet Great Again") initiative.

Researchers from 67 institutions contributed to the Ecology Letters paper.

Principal funding for it came from the National Science Foundation,
the Belmont Forum and France's Programme d'Investissement d'Avenir
("Make Our Planet Great Again") initiative.

In addition to Clark's primary faculty appointment at Duke's Nicholas
School, he holds an appointment at the Universite' Grenoble Alpes through
the Institute National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation
et l'Environnement.

Tong Qiu, a postdoctoral associate of Clark's at the Nicholas School,
was lead author of the Nature Communications paper.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Duke_University. Note: Content may
be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal References:
1. Tong Qiu, Robert Andrus, Marie-Claire Aravena, Davide Ascoli, Yves
Bergeron, Roberta Berretti, Daniel Berveiller, Michal Bogdziewicz,
Thomas Boivin, Raul Bonal, Don C. Bragg, Thomas Caignard, Rafael
Calama, J.

Julio Camarero, Chia-Hao Chang-Yang, Natalie L. Cleavitt, Benoit
Courbaud, Francois Courbet, Thomas Curt, Adrian J. Das, Evangelia
Daskalakou, Hendrik Davi, Nicolas Delpierre, Sylvain Delzon, Michael
Dietze, Sergio Donoso Calderon, Laurent Dormont, Josep Espelta,
Timothy J. Fahey, William Farfan-Rios, Catherine A. Gehring, Gregory
S. Gilbert, Georg Gratzer, Cathryn H. Greenberg, Qinfeng Guo, Andrew
Hacket-Pain, Arndt Hampe, Qingmin Han, Janneke Hille Ris Lambers,
Kazuhiko Hoshizaki, Ines Ibanez, Jill F. Johnstone, Valentin
Journe', Daisuke Kabeya, Christopher L. Kilner, Thomas Kitzberger,
Johannes M. H. Knops, Richard K. Kobe, Georges Kunstler, Jonathan
G. A. Lageard, Jalene M. LaMontagne, Mateusz Ledwon, Francois
Lefevre, Theodor Leininger, Jean-Marc Limousin, James A. Lutz, Diana
Macias, Eliot J. B. McIntire, Christopher M. Moore, Emily Moran,
Renzo Motta, Jonathan A. Myers, Thomas A. Nagel, Kyotaro Noguchi,
Jean-Marc Ourcival, Robert Parmenter, Ian S. Pearse, Ignacio M.

Perez-Ramos, Lukasz Piechnik, John Poulsen, Renata Poulton-Kamakura,
Miranda D. Redmond, Chantal D. Reid, Kyle C. Rodman, Francisco
Rodriguez- Sanchez, Javier D. Sanguinetti, C. Lane Scher, William
H. Schlesinger, Harald Schmidt Van Marle, Barbara Seget, Shubhi
Sharma, Miles Silman, Michael A. Steele, Nathan L. Stephenson,
Jacob N. Straub, I-Fang Sun, Samantha Sutton, Jennifer J. Swenson,
Margaret Swift, Peter A. Thomas, Maria Uriarte, Giorgio Vacchiano,
Thomas T. Veblen, Amy V. Whipple, Thomas G. Whitham, Andreas
P. Wion, Boyd Wright, S. Joseph Wright, Kai Zhu, Jess K. Zimmerman,
Roman Zlotin, Magdalena Zywiec, James S. Clark.

Limits to reproduction and seed size-number trade-offs that shape
forest dominance and future recovery. Nature Communications, 2022;
13 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30037-9
2. Valentin Journe', Robert Andrus, Marie‐Claire Aravena, Davide
Ascoli, Roberta Berretti, Daniel Berveiller, Michal Bogdziewicz,
Thomas Boivin, Raul Bonal, Thomas Caignard, Rafael Calama,
Jesu's Julio Camarero, Chia‐Hao Chang‐Yang,
Benoit Courbaud, Francois Courbet, Thomas Curt, Adrian J. Das,
Evangelia Daskalakou, Hendrik Davi, Nicolas Delpierre, Sylvain
Delzon, Michael Dietze, Sergio Donoso Calderon, Laurent Dormont,
Josep Maria Espelta, Timothy J. Fahey, William Farfan‐Rios,
Catherine A. Gehring, Gregory S. Gilbert, Georg Gratzer, Cathryn
H. Greenberg, Qinfeng Guo, Andrew Hacket‐Pain, Arndt Hampe,
Qingmin Han, Janneke Hille Ris Lambers, Kazuhiko Hoshizaki, Ines
Ibanez, Jill F. Johnstone, Daisuke Kabeya, Roland Kays, Thomas
Kitzberger, Johannes M. H. Knops, Richard K. Kobe, Georges Kunstler,
Jonathan G. A. Lageard, Jalene M. LaMontagne, Theodor Leininger,
Jean‐Marc Limousin, James A. Lutz, Diana Macias, Eliot J. B.

McIntire, Christopher M. Moore, Emily Moran, Renzo Motta,
Jonathan A.

Myers, Thomas A. Nagel, Kyotaro Noguchi, Jean‐Marc Ourcival,
Robert Parmenter, Ian S. Pearse, Ignacio M. Perez‐Ramos,
Lukasz Piechnik, John Poulsen, Renata Poulton‐Kamakura,
Tong Qiu, Miranda D.

Redmond, Chantal D. Reid, Kyle C. Rodman, Francisco
Rodriguez‐Sanchez, Javier D. Sanguinetti, C. Lane Scher,
Harald Schmidt Van Marle, Barbara Seget, Shubhi Sharma, Miles
Silman, Michael A.

Steele, Nathan L. Stephenson, Jacob N. Straub, Jennifer J. Swenson,
Margaret Swift, Peter A. Thomas, Maria Uriarte, Giorgio Vacchiano,
Thomas T. Veblen, Amy V. Whipple, Thomas G. Whitham, Boyd Wright,
S. Joseph Wright, Kai Zhu, Jess K. Zimmerman, Roman Zlotin,
Magdalena Zywiec, James S. Clark. Globally, tree fecundity exceeds
productivity gradients.

Ecology Letters, 2022; DOI: 10.1111/ele.14012 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220502125407.htm

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