The Bigger the better?

Effect of Seed Mass on Dormancy release and Germination

in two African Savana Woody Species
Jocelyn Huang , Annerine Myburgh , Dr. T. Michael Anderson

Background Treatment and Seed Mass on Germination

a b • Physical dormancy 1. Both species reacts to heat beJer than control
• Fire as a frequent event
benefits the Vachellia
species by removing grass
c d compeCtors, recovering soil
1 cm 1 cm
nutrients, and creaCng
Figure 1. (a, c) Vachellia robusta (Wikipedia) and seeds. (b, d) space for seedlings to grow
Vachellia tor/lis (Wikipedia) and seeds. Both are woody species in
African savanna ecosystem. and germinate

Serengeti Ecosystem
Figure 6. Cumula3ve propor3on of germina3on in V. robusta (orange) and V. tor/lis (blue)
The picture can't be displayed. Figure 2 (le$). Official map of Greater Serenge3 Ecosystem. Red dots respec3vely from day 1 to day 11. Heat treatment group shows higher cumula3ve germina3on
showing the loca3ons of seeds being collected from. (UNESCO) propor3on (dash line) in both species comparing to the control group (dash-dot line)

Dense grass; scarce trees 2. Seed mass has a correlaCon with germinaCon rate
frequent fire
Figure 7. Probability of Germina3on of V.
robusta (leN) and V. tor/lis (right).
Consistent with Result 1, heat treatment
groups (orange) have higher chance of
germina3ng comparing to control group
(blue) for both species. For V. robusta (leN),
there exists a posi3ve correla3on between
seed mass and probability of germina3on,
while for V. tor3lis, there is instead a slight
nega3ve correla3on, though not significant.
There is an overall posi3ve significant
Figure 3. A photo of Serenge3 Na3onal Park showing typical savanna correla3on between seed mass and chance
ecosystem: dense grasses and scarce trees. of germina3on, according to the summary
(serenge3parktanzania.com) and ANOVA table.

Experimental Design
Summary Type III ANOVA

1. Seed collected from across SNP

2. Mass measurement

3. Treatment
Discussion & Future Direction
Heat treatment (80 ℃ oven, 5 min) Figure 4. photo of seeds placed (4 in a group) in labeled

Control group
petri-dishes in between filter papers
• Effect of heat treatment on the
Pseudo-replicate: petri-dish (2-4 in growth and vitality of seedlings
a group) with 2 layer of Whatman • Why is it posiCvely correlated in TransplanCng the
filter paper V. robusta and negaCvely seedlings to pots
correlated in V. torClis?
• Smaller seeds respond beJer
4. Greenhouse (11 days): 8:16 hour a b

Figure 5. Samples of (a) V. tor/lis seedling and (b) to heat treatment due to
light regime and 28 ͦ C temperature V. robusta seedling aNer petri-dish germina3on in
Seed coat
greenhouse for 11 days lower tolerance (Pausas et al.
2022) measurement
Acknowledgement • May cause by seed coat
thickness instead of mass
I want to give a special thank to Annerine Myburgh, my co-mentor and the PhD student in
Anderson’s lab who guided me in every step of the study and supported me full-heartedly. I Pausas, Juli G., and Byron B. Lamont. “Fire‐released Seed Dormancy ‐ a Global Synthesis.” Biological reviews of the Cambridge
also want to thank Dr. Michael Anderson for genius insight and conAnued support. Philosophical Society 97, no. 4 (2022): 1612–1639.