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Fresh and Dry Weight Relations Are Predictors of Cycas micronesica Seed Age Marler, Thomas E.; Shaw, Christopher A.

Abstract

Cycas micronesica is a foundation species in several Micronesian islands and its seeds have been a historical source of starch for the island residents. The species has become endangered by invasive specialist insect herbivores and conservationists struggle with the inability to estimate the age of observed seeds. To inform this agenda, we evaluated numerous Cycas micronesica seed traits to determine if any exhibited a relationship with age and a substantial change in absolute value. Of the 30 direct and derived seed traits that we evaluated, most of them were non-linear and exhibited minimal change after about 12 months in age. The only traits that emerged as unambiguous estimators of age were the quotients derived as gametophyte fresh weight/total seed fresh weight and sarcotesta dry weight/sclerotesta dry weight. These two simple metrics can be used to accurately estimate seed age for this arborescent cycad species.

Item Metadata

Title
Fresh and Dry Weight Relations Are Predictors of Cycas micronesica Seed Age
Creator
Marler, Thomas E.; Shaw, Christopher A.
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Date Issued
2020-05-18
Description
Cycas micronesica is a foundation species in several Micronesian islands and its seeds have been a historical source of starch for the island residents. The species has become endangered by invasive specialist insect herbivores and conservationists struggle with the inability to estimate the age of observed seeds. To inform this agenda, we evaluated numerous Cycas micronesica seed traits to determine if any exhibited a relationship with age and a substantial change in absolute value. Of the 30 direct and derived seed traits that we evaluated, most of them were non-linear and exhibited minimal change after about 12 months in age. The only traits that emerged as unambiguous estimators of age were the quotients derived as gametophyte fresh weight/total seed fresh weight and sarcotesta dry weight/sclerotesta dry weight. These two simple metrics can be used to accurately estimate seed age for this arborescent cycad species.
Subject
cycad; Cycadaceae; ontogeny
Genre
Article
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2020-06-30
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
CC BY 4.0
DOI
10.14288/1.0392017
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/74811
Affiliation
Medicine, Faculty of; Non UBC; Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Department of
Citation
Horticulturae 6 (2): 29 (2020)
Publisher DOI
10.3390/horticulturae6020029
Peer Review Status
Reviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty
Rights URI
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository
DSpace

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CC BY 4.0