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Seed germination traits and dormancy classification of 27 species inhabiting the degraded karst mountain from central Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau: seed mass and moisture content correlate with germination capacity.

● In degraded karst ecosystem, vegetation restoration efforts are almost exclusively relying on seedling plantation, but it is not effective to maintain community diversity and resilience. As seed functional traits, seed dormancy and germination are keys to community assembly. Unfortunately, these elements are commonly overlooked in restoring degraded ecosystems. ● This work undertook a classification of seed dormancy of 27 species of different life forms that were common in a degraded karst mountain. We assayed the effects of temperature regimes and light conditions on germination percentages and assessed the relationships between seed traits and germination index using a partial least squares regression (PLSR). ● Approximately 48% of the investigated species exhibited physiological dormancy, 37% exhibited nondormancy, 7% exhibited morphophysiological dormancy, 4% exhibited morphological dormancy and 4% exhibited physical dormancy. We detected that 94% (15 out of 16) species germinated to the maximum percent in warm temperature regimes (20/13 and 25/18 °C), while the remaining was in cool temperature regime (10/4 °C). The PLSR analysis indicated a significant positive correlation between seed mass and T50 m (time to 50% final germination), and a negative correlation between seed moisture content and percent germination. ● Our findings indicate that seed traits are important factors in seed-based restoration practice. F. esculentum, O. opipara, P. fortuneana and S. salicifolia are recommended, for direct seeding at the early rain season, to restore seriously degraded lands in subtropical karst regions.