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Global Ecology and Conservation 21 (2020) E00855 Global Ecology and Conservation 21 (2020) e00855 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Global Ecology and Conservation journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/gecco Original Research Article Overcoming germination barriers in four native Malvaceae shrub species of Reunion island to improve restoration in arid habitats Cedric Leperlier a, b, c, Jean-Noel€ Eric Riviere b,Stephane Lacroix c, Isabelle Fock- * Bastide a, a UniversitedeLaReunion, UMR PVBMT, F-97410, St Pierre, La Reunion, France b CIRAD, UMR PVBMT, F-97410, St Pierre, La Reunion, France c SCEA Pepiniere Du Theatre,^ F-97434, St Gilles Les Bains, La Reunion, France article info abstract Article history: Islands are well-known to house an incredible biodiversity, higher level of threatened Received 16 July 2019 species and extinctions than mainlands. Because of human activities and climate change, Received in revised form 21 November 2019 these endangered regions required advanced conservation and restoration strategies. Accepted 21 November 2019 In this study, we investigated seed germination ecology of four native Malvaceae species (Dombeya acutangula, Dombeya populnea, Ruizia cordata and Thespesia populneoides)of Keywords: degraded dry lowlands of Reunion Island. We measured seed imbibition, investigated the Conservation dormancy class of seeds, determined light requirements for germination and identified Germination Malvaceae treatments to improve germination of these species. For this purpose, germination tests Physical dormancy were performed over 32 days and two photoperiods (12 h/12 h or 0 h/24 h), by using seeds Restoration treated with H2O2, gibberellic acid and smoke water. Mechanical and chemical scarifica- tions as well as heat treatment were also carried out. Germination percentages were analyzed by fitting generalized linear models (GLMs) with a logit link function. For the four species, a significant mass increase is detected for scarified seeds after a week imbibition (>60% mass increase). Germination percentages of seeds treated with H2O2,GA3 and smoke water were not significantly different from control seed. On the contrary, scarified seeds exhibited significantly higher germination percentages than control seeds. In addition, germination speed was also significantly higher for scarified seeds. These results are congruent with a physical dormancy phenomenon of seeds of the four Mal- vaceae shrubs. In addition, no particular light requirement was observed for germination. Artificial methods to break dormancy and stimulate germination described in this study could improve establishment success in arid habitats. © 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). 1. Introduction Human role in global biodiversity loss is nowadays a recognized fact (Chapin et al., 2000). Over the past centuries, human activities such as landscape transformation for urbanization or agriculture, hunting or exotic species introduction have severely increase habitat loss and associated species extinction rates (Barnosky et al., 2011; Brooks et al., 2006). Congruently, * Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (I. Fock-Bastide). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00855 2351-9894/© 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/ 4.0/). 2 C. Leperlier et al. / Global Ecology and Conservation 21 (2020) e00855 climate change has also been raised as a major threat to biodiversity loss by increasing the effects of habitat destruction (de Chazal and Rounsevell, 2009; Sala et al., 2000). Given the limited international resources (Kier et al., 2009), conservationists now have to set up priorities in conservation activities in order to limit biodiversity loss (Myers et al., 2000) and to develop cost-effective conservation strategies (Mantyka-Pringle et al., 2015). When compared to mainland areas, oceanic islands are well-known to house an incredible biodiversity and high levels of endemism (Kier et al., 2009). Due to their high endemism rates, islands communities are more sensitive to disturbances and require advanced conservation and restoration strategies (Courchamp et al., 2014; Kaiser-Bunbury et al., 2010). Including Malagasy, the Mascarene archipelago, i.e. Reunion Island, Mauritius and Rodrigues, is recognized as a biodiversity hotspot (Mittermeier et al., 2011). Among these islands, Reunion Island (2512 km2) conserves by far the largest area of relatively intact habitats in the archipelago (Thebaud et al., 2009). However, invasion caused by introduced species and increasing urbani- zation pressure in order to fulfill the needs for future human populations are the most influencing factors in habitat loss on the island (Catry and Besnard, 2015; Strasberg et al., 2005). Thus, in order to limit habitats loss and to preserve the remaining ecosystems, the island is admitted as a global priority for conservation (Thebaud et al., 2009). In addition, regulatory tools are also being reinforced for the island plant conservation. The list of protected plants species of Reunion Island was therefore recently extended from 61 to 238 species, in order to facilitate conservation of its exceptional flora (Ministere de la Transition ecologique et solidaire, 2017). The most severe degradation has been observed in lowlands (<1000 m) of the West of the island (coastal habitats, savannas and dry forests) (Strasberg et al., 2005) where their original habitats were reduced to 1% after coffee cultivation, wood exploitation and urbanization (Sarrailh et al., 2008). In these areas, several native (and endemic to the Mascarene archipelago or even to Reunion Island) woody species (especially shrub species) of Malvaceae were common. Nevertheless, their populations severely decreased and now remain in patches or even in isolated individuals. This is the reason for adding four shrub species recently to the list of protected species of Reunion Island (Ministere de la Transition ecologique et solidaire, 2017). Thus, Ruizia cordata [the only species of Ruizia, endemic to Reunion Island (Bosser et al., 1987)], which naturally occurred in dry lowlands of the West of the island, no longer persists in natural habitats (Gigord et al., 1999) and only 5 individuals remain (Augros et al., 2015). Dombeya is indigenous to Mascarene archipelago (Gigord et al., 1999), and in Reunion Island, several Dombeya species occur in small isolated populations with very few individuals (Humeau et al., 2000). Some species such as D. populnea and D. acutangula were commonly observed in dry lowlands of the island (Bosser et al., 1987). These species occur in small, relict, fragmented populations in semi-dry tropical forests in the western half of the island and are extremely rare in natural habitats where they have mostly disappeared and are protected by law (Gigord et al., 1999; Humeau et al., 1999). Thespesia is a pantropical genus consisting of 16e17 species (Areces-Berazain and Ackerman, 2016). In Reunion Island, T. populneoides which is indigenous (Boullet, 2015) was found on coastal habitats of the West of the island (Bosser et al.,1987). Due to the confusion often made with an introduced species T. populnea, the natural populations of this species are difficult to estimate (Boullet, 2015). Nevertheless, recently a few individuals have been observed on the West shore of the island (Boullet, 2015). Consequently, these species are targeted for conservation and for cultivation of individuals in greenhouses for their reintroduction. In addition to conservation and propagation, native species could also be used in rehabilitation and/or restoration of damaged ecosystems (Baskin and Baskin, 2014). Indeed, using native species that are eco-physiologically adapted to local conditions (Ammondt and Litton, 2012) is a widely proposed method for rehabilitation of degraded areas (García-Palacios et al., 2010; Kiehl et al., 2010; Tinsley et al., 2006). Germination ecology studies contribute to a better understanding of biological concepts such as plant reproductive strategies, life history traits and adaptations to habitats (Baskin and Baskin, 2014). Such information can have several ap- plications and can benefit to conservationists and also allow applications in restoration ecology. Indeed, low germination capacity (which may be related to the viability, vigor or dormancy of seeds) is one of the reasons that have been previously suggested to determine success or failure of native species installation on degraded areas (Bochet et al., 2010; Oliveira et al., 2012, 2013). More precisely, limited knowledge about seed dormancy breaking and other germination requirements hinders revegetation programs with many species targeted for that purpose (Alday et al., 2010; Bochet et al., 2007; Marty and Kettenring, 2017; Matesanz et al., 2008; Oliveira et al., 2013). In Reunion Island, knowledge about seed germination ecol- ogy (especially about dormancy and photoblasty) of native species is scarce and only a few published research papers are available (e.g. Gigord et al., 1999; Leperlier et al., 2018). Seed dormancy is a thoroughly studied phenomenon which is known to be set by species to adapt to the environment and to wait for suitable environmental conditions to maximize chances of seedlings survival and establishment (Finch-Savage and Leubner-Metzger, 2006; Nee et al., 2017). Seed dormancy can be defined as the failure of an intact
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