NGSeeds Abstract 115 Congresso SBI

Availability of big data, and of powerful computational tools have given plant scientists unprecedented potential to quantify large-scale (geographically and phylogenetically) patterns in plant ecology, and evolution. While vegetative traits data have been studied in detail, functional significance of reproductive features, such as seed germination, pollination ecology, and dispersal have received less attention. The aim of the NGSeeds (Next Generation Seed Ecology, Evolution and Data Science) research group is to share and synthesize knowledge on biological and functional traits of seeds, and other related plant regenerative properties, with the final goal of understanding the role of local, regional and global ecological conditions, evolutionary constraints, and biogeographical features in driving and shaping the regenerative niche of plants from seeds. NGSeeds arose as a result of collaborations between the authors of this communication, including a synthesis of seed germination photoinhibition (Carta et al. 2017, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0960258517000137; Vandelook et al. 2017, https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcx147), and a meta-analysis of seed plasticity in response to temperature (Fernández-Pascual et al. 2019, https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12461). The researchers are now working to identify funding opportunities that could provide NGSeeds of a stable flow of fundings, while including more researchers. Currently, NGSeeds is leading wide-ranging studies such as: 1) testing phylogenetic and ecological clustering of seed germination across European biomes [2,500 taxa and 20,000 germination data records]; 2) synthesizing the seed germination syndromes of Alpine plants worldwide [650 taxa, 9,500 records]; 3) testing the effect of climate and soil in the seed traits of co-occurring plant species in the temperate deciduous forests of the northern hemisphere [17,000 vegetation plots, 450 taxa, 7,100 germination records]; 4) investigating the functional ecology and evolution of relative embryo size using phylogenetic comparative methods [2500 taxa, 4000 records]. By the end of the 2020, we expect to publish the results of the above-mentioned projects in international plant science journals. We are planning a first workshop to be held in autumn 2020 in Pisa, as well as ot

Jaar van publicatie:2020