CONFERENCE
Keynote Speakers
Prof. Carol Baskin
University of Kentucky, USA
Evolutionary aspects of dormancy at the whole-seed/embryo level: many unanswered questions
Beginning with Nikolaeva’s seed dormancy classification system in the 1960’s, our understanding of the evolution of seed dormancy has increased greatly; however, many unanswered questions remain. My talk will focus on some of the questions that need to be answered to fully understand the evolutionary relationships of the kinds of seed dormancy. Although the original hierarchical seed dormancy classification system was recently expanded, it is still incomplete, lacking, for example, how seed dormancy of palms, mycoheterotrophs and holoparasites with undifferentiated embryos and some marine angiosperms fits into the system. How many additions need to be made to the list of families with embryos that grow (inside the seed) before germination is complete? This is an especially important question for monocots and in particular those with a capitate embryo. Amborella, the most basal extant angiosperm, has a rudimentary embryo, but such an embryo is not known in seeds of extant or fossil gymnosperms. What is the origin of the rudimentary embryo? Did some yet-to-be-discovered ancient gymnosperm have a rudimentary embryo, or is this an “invention” of the angiosperms? Physiological dormancy (PD) occurs in all 13 kinds of embryos. Thus, did PD evolve in the basal kind of embryo? What is the basal kind of embryo – rudimentary or linear underdeveloped? Why is there more diversity in embryo morphology in angiosperms than in gymnosperms? Is Martin’s 70-year-old family tree of seed phylogeny correct? Finally, when did PD evolve, and why is it the most common kind of dormancy on earth?
Brief biographical data: Dr. Carol C. Baskin is a Professor in the Department of Biology and the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at the University of Kentucky (USA). She has published 500 scientific papers and with Jerry M. Baskin published the second edition of “Seeds: Ecology, biography and evolution of dormancy and germination” in 2014. Much of her recent research has been done in collaboration with seed scientists in China.
Prof. Diego Batlla
University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Environmental control of dormancy in weed seed banks: Predicting temporal patterns of weed emergence.
Actually I am professor at the Department of Plant Production, Faculty of Agronomy, University of Buenos Aires, and research member of the Argentinean National Scientific and Technical Research Council. My research interest is focused mainly on understanding how the environment regulates seed dormancy and germination in wild and cultivated species. During the last twelve years I have been studying the environmental regulation of dormancy in weed seed-banks and developing mathematical models to predict dormancy changes and weed emergence patterns under field conditions. More recently I have also become involved in research related to the effect of the maternal environment on dormancy and germination in cultivated species, such as quinoa and sunflower. Since I am an agronomist, the final aim of my research is to solve agronomic problems related to seed biology.
Prof. Alexander V Christianini
Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Brazil
I am a field ecologist interested in understanding how seed dispersal and predation influence plant recruitment. My main research focuses on the role of ants in seed dispersal of fleshy-fruited plants that have birds and mammals as the main seed dispersers. My research is based on field ecology in tropical vegetation, in special in savannas (Cerrado) and Atlantic forests in Brazil. Other topics of interest include biological invasions, biodiversity conservation and bird natural history.
site: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alexander_Christianini
Dr. Soizig Le Stradic
University of Liège, Belgium
Importance of seed ecology to restore tropical grasslands
In ecological restoration, the lack of information regarding the ecology and the biology of the target species hinders numerous restoration actions, especially in tropical ecosystems. In South America or Africa, several degraded areas failed to be restored, sometimes despite a large seed input. Several hypotheses are possible to explain these failures among which a possible germination issue. Successful restoration is often limited by the lack of information on how to reintroduce propagules, as well as the biology and ecology of these propagules; the establishment of target species requires knowledge of their germination behavior. The restoration of some communities depends on the availability of viable seeds and non-dormant seeds; it also depends on suitable condition to germinate: some species germinating only under particular conditions. Through examples in South America and Africa, we will highlight the crucial link between seed ecology and ecological restoration.
Biography: The objectives of my work consist of understanding the assembly process of plant communities, in measuring the impact of anthropic disturbances, assessing the resilience of ecosystems and offering solutions for the restoration of these ecosystems. I have been working on community ecology and restoration ecology with a special focus on tropical grasslands, since 2007. My PhD thesis addressed the understanding of the functioning of some neotropical grasslands, the campos rupestres, located in southeastern Brazil, and the restoration of these grasslands. I followed my career at the Biodiversity and Landscape Unit, at Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech (University of Liege, Belgium) for three years, dealing with the theoretical understanding of the functioning, the conservation and the restoration of tropical grasslands occurring in copper outcrops in Katanga, Democratic Republic of Congo. Both campos rupestres in Brazil and copper flora in DRC, are old-growth grasslands, characterized by a very low resilience to strong anthropogenic disturbances, because most species present low dispersion ability, numerous unviable seeds, sometimes low germination capacity but present usually a high capacity to resprout from underground storage organs after disturbance like fire.
Prof. Peter Poschlod
University of Regensburg, Germany
Seed bank dynamics: what we know now and some future challenges
Peter Poschlod holds since 2001 the Chair of Ecology and Conservation Biology at the Institute of Plant sciences at the University of Regensburg (Bavaria, Germany). He is also the director of the Regensburg Botanical Garden and president as well as the head of the herbarium of the oldest, still existing Botanical Society of the world, the Regensburg Botanical Society (founded in 1790).
His research interests are comparatively broad covering vegetation ecological (incl. restoration ecology) and plant (population) ecological aspects as well as on historical ecology. Seed ecological aspects (dispersal, seed bank persistence, germination) are in his focus since more than 25 years to better understand vegetation patterns and dynamics (incl. restoration aspects) as well as a plant species’ occurrence. He is e.g. the author (together with Susanne Bonn) of the German textbook on dispersal biology of plants (Ausbreitungsbiologie der Pflanzen Mitteleuropas. Grundlagen und kulturhistorische Aspekte) which appeared in 1998 and of the chapter Seed ecology and assembly rules in plant communities (together with other co-authors) in the 2nd edition of the textbook Vegetation Ecology edited by Eddy van der Maarel and Janet Franklin which appeared in 2013. He is also engaged in seed banking. He has edited the first German handbook for seed gene banks of wild plants (Handbuch Genbank WEL; online under http://download.ble.de/08BM008/HandbuchWEL.pdf). Together with his working group he has established the first seed genebank for threatened and rare plants in germany, Bayern Arche (http://www.genbank-bayern-arche.de/).
Aspects on soil seed bank persistence are studied in many respects – first, how to classify seed bank persistence, second on environmental parameters affecting seed bank persistence, third on soil seed longevity of rare and threatened species of the central European flora and finally how a persistent seedbank may tell us something about the land use history and how it may be used for the restoration of certain plant communities.
e-mail: peter.poschlod@ur.de
Dr. Filip Vandelook
Botanic Garden Meise, Belgium
Seed evolution in response to climate change
After finishing my PhD at the plant ecology lab in the KU Leuven, I moved to the Plant Ecology lab of Diethart Matthies in Marburg, were I stayed for three years. A Belspo Back to Back Belgium offered me the opportunity to returne to Belgium to work as a researcher in the seed conservation department of the Botanic Garden Meise.
Initially I started studying the ecology of European temperate woodland herbs, without bothering too much about variation at the population level. Now my research has moved to studying large scale patterns of ecology and evolution of seed traits, both at the species and population level. I’m very much interested in the role of habitat and climate conditions driving the evolution seed traits, thereby taking into account other plant traits. At the species level recently developed comparative methods are applied to explore patterns of seed evolution. I’m also interested in the variation in seed traits at the population level and the role of maternal effects, which are being studied using common garden experiments.