title: [Seed geography: its concept and basic scientific issues].
abstract: In this paper, a new concept 'seed geography' was provided, and its definition, research contents, and scientific issues were put forward. Seed geography is a newly developed interdisciplinary science from plant geography, seed ecology, and phytosociology, which studies the geographic variation patterns of seed biological traits as well as their relationships with environmental factors from macroscopic to microscopic, and the seed formation, development, and change trends. The main research contents would include geography of seed mass, geography of seed chemical components, geography of seed morphology, geography of seed cell biological characteristics, geography of seed physiological characteristics, geography of seed genetic characteristics, and geography of flower and fruit. To explore the scientific issues in seed geography would help us to better understand the long-term adaptation and evolution of seed characteristics to natural environments.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Changes, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China. shunliyu@ibcas.ac.cn
authors.forename: Shun-Li
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Zong-Shuai
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Wangmu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zeren
mesh_terms: D017753:Ecosystem; D005843:Geography / Q000145:classification / Q000379:methods; D012639:Seeds