DOI: 10.5061/dryad.c59zw3rcd
title: Data from: Seed dormancy revisited: dormancy-release pathways and environmental interactions

description: 1. Many internal (inherent) and environmental (imposed) factors control
 seed dormancy and germina-tion from which we can derive three basic
 dormancy-release pathways: Maternal structures and embryo physiology
 control inherent dormancy that is broken by various types of scarification
 and physiological changes, followed by imposed-dormancy release when
 replaced by certain ‘standard’ environmental conditions that stimulate
 germination (pathway 1); imposed dormancy prevails even if inherent
 dorman-cy is broken or not applicable that is released when replaced by
 certain ‘standard’ environmental condi-tions which stimulate germination
 (pathway 2); release from inherent dormancy by light/dark or cold
 stratification is contingent on existing presence of certain ‘standard’
 environmental conditions that stim-ulate germination (pathway 3). 2.
 On-plant seed storage (serotiny) and frugivorous seeds are recognized here
 as representing special types of physical dormancy, as their properties
 are consistent with those of hard diaspores. Warm stratification does not
 require seeds to be moist as it is just a physical response. Heat may
 promote germination of non-hard, as well as hard, seeds as it may also
 increase their permeability. 3. Levels of germination gauge the net effect
 of inherent- and imposed-dormancy release so that it only possible to
 identify the extent of inherent-dormancy release when conditions for
 germination are optimal (imposed dormancy has been annulled). While
 imposed dormancy may be protracted after inherent dormancy is broken by
 heat or chilling during the dry or cold seasons, release from both states
 may effectively coincide if smoke chemicals or light are received during
 the (wet) growing sea-son. 4. We suggest reserving the term secondary
 dormancy for seeds that return to (inherent or imposed) dormancy due to
 changed environmental conditions. Under seasonal climates, fluctuations in
 envi-ronmental conditions can lead to secondary dormancy and even dormancy
 cycling. 5. We recognize four types of functional interactions between any
 two environmental factors that induce inherent-dormancy release: binary
 interactions are either ineffective, only one effective, non-additive or
 additive/synergistic. Two environmental stimuli that individually break
 dormancy but have no additive effect must be affecting the same process;
 this was demonstrated here for some interac-tions between heat and smoke.
 6. The three dormancy-release pathways, together with internal, seasonal
 and stochastic interact ions, are coordinated by the non-dormant seed to
 ensure maximum germination under optimal conditions. To ignore any aspect
 outlined here leads to an impoverished understanding of the disparate seed
 ecol-ogy of species adapted to different stressful and disturbance-prone
 habitats.
description: Data are compiled from published references, in all cases, the
 reference is provided.
description: Files are comma-delimited and can be opened with any spreadsheet,
 database, or statiscal software. In R they can directly be open with the
 function read.csv, e.g.  dat&lt;-
 read.csv("Lamont-Pausas-2023-FE_data_germination.csv")