Seed mass of angiosperm woody plants better explained by life history traits than climate across China

Abstract

Seed mass is a basic trait in studies of functional ecology. Examining how seed mass is affected by biotic and abiotic factors could improve our understanding of ecological strategies in plants. Here we examined the relationships of seed mass with 13 climate variables and seven life history traits, and partitioned the relative effects of life history traits vs. climate, based on seed mass data for 1265 woody angiosperm species in China. Our results showed that seed mass decreased with latitude, and most climate variables were positively correlated with seed mass. Geographic seed mass pattern was affected by both energy and water availability in the growing season, but the effect of energy availability was more important. Seed mass was also significantly related to other traits such as growth form, fruit type, dispersal mode, breeding system, leaf habit, fruit development time, and minimum juvenile period, with growth form and dispersal mode being the most closely related traits. Our results showed that climate explained much less variation in seed mass than life history traits, and that phylogeny played an important role in shaping the large-scale patterns of seed mass.