Study Shows Diaspore Characteristics Closely Relating with Phylogeny, Vegetative periods, Dispersal Syndromes and Ecotype of 150 Species from the Gurbantunggut Desert

Diaspore mass and shape is a core characteristic in the life history of a plant. Variation of the diaspores between or within species has important ecological and evolutionary significance. Characteristics of diaspore can be used as an important basis for taxonomy.

Currently, the study on a large sample of the diaspore characteristics in a same floristic has become a research hotspot on the Inner Mongolia grassland and Horqin sandy in China. However, less information is available regarding on diaspore traits in the arid cold desert area in northwest China.

Information on seed dispersal of desert plants is crucial in order to understand adaptative strategies of plants in desert areas. To discuss the relationship of biological characteristics (mass, shape, color and appendage type) with phylogeny group (APG), vegetative periods, dispersal syndromes and ecotypes, and the relationship between biological characteristics and dispersal adaptation to the desert ecological environment, LIU Huiliang et al. analyzed the diaspore characteristics of 22 families, including 102 genera and 150 species (55 represented by seeds and 95 by fruits) from the Gurbantunggut Desert.

The results showed that the diaspore mass and shape were significantly different in APG and dispersal syndromes. The vegetative periods significantly affected diaspore mass, while the ecotypes did not significantly affect diaspore mass and shape. Unique stepwise ANOVA results indicated that variance in diaspore mass and shape among these 150 species was largely dependent upon phylogeny and dispersal syndromes. Therefore, it was suggested that phylogeny may constrain diaspore mass, and as dispersal syndromes may be related to phylogeny, they also constrained diaspore mass and shape. Diaspores of 85 species (56.67%) had appendages, including 26 with wings/bracts, 18 with pappus/hair, 14 with hooks/spines, 10 with awns and 17 with other types of appendages. Different traits (mass, shape, color, appendage and dispersal syndromes) of diaspore decided plants forming different adapted strategies in the desert.

In summary, the diaspore characteristics were closely related with phylogeny, vegetative periods, dispersal syndromes and ecotype, and these characteristics allowed the plants to adapt to extreme desert environments. This research has a great significance in taxonomy, ecology, and evolutionary biology for studying other cold deserts. The study was published in The Scientific World Journal in 2014.