| Abstract Detail
Pteridological Section/AFS Watkins, Jr., James E. [1]. Stress physiology of fern gametophytes: consequences for distribution and abundance. In tropical forests, canopy habitats experience greater extremes in light and moisture than terrestrial habitats. Not surprisingly, ferns species appear to exist exclusively as either an epiphytic or terrestrial species. Since ferns rely on a relatively sensitive free-living gametophyte generation, we hypothesized that epiphytic species would be more tolerant to excessive light exposure and drought relative to terrestrial species. The goal of this study was to develop a mechanistic understanding of the functional traits important for the survival of fern gametophytes and their recruitment into the sporophyte generation in tropical wet forests. A series of experiments were used to understand how germination rates, drought and excess light tolerance between species. We reciprocally transplanted the spores of 30 tropical fern species on soil collected from canopy and terrestrial (mineral) sites, and exposed them to 150 ?mol m-2 sec-1 of light. After 5 months, we simulated the effects of light stress on chlorophyll fluorescence by exposing 10 gametophytes per species to 1200 ?mol m-2 sec-1 for one hour. I then examined drought stress by exposing 10 individuals per species to 60% humidity for 70 min. Immediate and long-term recovery were monitored for both experiments. Germination rate was higher on canopy soils (95%) than terrestrial soils (34%). All terrestrial species were able to grow on canopy soil: a condition rarely if ever observed in nature. All species exhibited remarkable recovery from both light and drought stress. This recovery was largely driven by species natural light environment and not necessarily the epiphyte/terrestrial dichotomy proposed in our original hypothesis. These data suggest that gametophytes exhibit differential abilities to cope with environmental stress, which translate to differences in distribution and abundance of species.
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1 - University of Florida, Department of Botany, 220 Bartram Hall, P.O. Box 118526, Gainesville, Florida, 32611-8526, USA
Keywords:
fern
Pteridophytes
gametophyte
Drought Stress
Fluorescence
Tropical
ecology
Light Stress.
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 5-10
Location: 602/Hilton
Date: Monday, August 15th, 2005
Time: 11:45 AM
Abstract ID:425 |
