Journal Title
Title of Journal: Protoplasma
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Publisher
Springer Vienna
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Authors: Johanna Wagner Gerlinde Steinacher Ursula Ladinig
Publish Date: 2010/02/07
Volume: 243, Issue: 1-4, Pages: 117-128
Abstract
Biodiversity decreases with increasing altitude mainly because of the increasingly adverse climate In the European Alps only a few plant species occur above 4000 m asl among these is Ranunculus glacialis L Current studies have shown that R glacialis has a highly conservative growth strategy and low developmental plasticity in response to different dates of snowmelt Therefore it was of particular interest to observe whether this strategy is maintained at higher altitudes and to reveal the reproductive limits We examined the effect of the date of snowmelt on reproductive development and reproductive success in R glacialis over several years at two subnival sites 2650 and 2880 m asl and at a nival site 3440 m asl in the Austrian Alps At the subnival sites reproductive performance was relatively stable prefloration period ie snowmelt to onset of anthesis 2–3 weeks postfloration period ie onset of anthesis until fruit maturity 4–5 weeks Depending on the date of flowering the mean seed/ovule S/O ratio was 05–08 The temporal safety margin between seed maturation and the onset of winter conditions was at least 1 month The situation was quite different in the nival zone the prefloration period usually lasted 1 month anthesis up to 2 weeks and seed development 6–7 weeks when seeds matured in time the S/O ratio was 04–06 Overall R glacialis shows a high developmental plasticity At higher altitudes R glacialis can double the time taken for seed development but runs a high risk of seeds not maturing in timeThis study was funded by the Austrian Science Foundation FWF as part of the project “Diversity of sexual reproduction in high mountain plants” P15595B3 We thank Stefanie Erler Daniela Hosp and Stephanie Widmann for their help with fieldwork and for providing data We thank E Hörandl and M Akhalkatsi for valuable suggestions on the manuscript Thanks also to the Stubaier Gletscherbahn and the Zillertaler Gletscherbahn for free transportation by cable car
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