title: Plant growth rates and seed size: a re-evaluation.
abstract: Small-seeded plant species are often reported to have high relative growth rate or RGR. However, because RGR declines as plants grow larger, small-seeded species could achieve higher RGR simply by virtue of their small size. In contrast, size-standardized growth rate or SGR factors out these size effects. Differences in SGR can thus only be due to differences in morphology, allocation, or physiology. We used nonlinear regression to calculate SGR for comparison with RGR for 10 groups of species spanning a wide range of life forms. We found that RGR was negatively correlated with seed mass in nearly all groups, but the relationship between SGR and seed mass was highly variable. We conclude that small-seeded species only sometimes possess additional adaptations for rapid growth over and above their general size advantage.
authors: Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, Winterthurerstrasse 190, University of Zurich, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland. lindsay.turnbull@ieu.uzh.ch
authors: Lindsay A
authors: LA
authors: Turnbull
authors: Christopher D
authors: CD
authors: Philipson
authors: Drew W
authors: DW
authors: Purves
authors: Rebecca L
authors: RL
authors: Atkinson
authors: Jennifer
authors: J
authors: Cunniff
authors: Anne
authors: A
authors: Goodenough
authors: Yann
authors: Y
authors: Hautier
authors: Jennie
authors: J
authors: Houghton
authors: Toby R
authors: TR
authors: Marthews
authors: Colin P
authors: CP
authors: Osborne
authors: Cloé
authors: C
authors: Paul-Victor
authors: Karen E
authors: KE
authors: Rose
authors: Philippe
authors: P
authors: Saner
authors: Samuel H
authors: SH
authors: Taylor
authors: F Ian
authors: FI
authors: Woodward
authors: Andy
authors: A
authors: Hector
authors: Mark
authors: M
authors: Rees
mesh_terms: D008954:Models, Biological; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D063245:Plant Development; D010944:Plants / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D012639:Seeds / Q000033:anatomy & histology*