Seeds are tiny, but they contain everything a plant needs to grow into a new plant. This process is called germination.
All seeds need water, the right temperature and light to start growing into a seedling (embryonic plant). The embryo also has a food supply inside it – stored in a tissue called endosperm.
Germination
Germination is the first stage in seed development. The embryo within a seed begins to grow, first by hydration of the raphe or micropyle in the seed coat, then through the formation of the hilum and the emergence of the embryonic axis from the seed coat (also called radicle).
The germination process is driven by temperature and nutrients. Seeds contain a food reserve, called endosperm, which provides the energy required for embryonic growth until the plant can develop its own source of nutrition through photosynthesis.
The length of time required for germination can be influenced by genetic background, the physical environment and climatic conditions. For example, many species that are dormant in winter have evolved to require a certain amount of cold stratification in order to break their physiological dormancy. In addition, a longer winter stratification period may result in a higher percentage of seeds that germinate. Consequently, studies of germination can help to inform our understanding of climate change impacts on plants.
Seed Development
Seeds provide the majority of human food, including cereal grains, legumes, nuts and spices. Each fully developed seed contains an embryo and a store of food reserves wrapped in a hard shell or seed coat. They “wake up” and germinate when environmental conditions like moisture and temperature are right for them.
In seed production, abiotic stress caused by high temperatures or water deficits significantly reduces yield and quality. Research into cultivars that are better adapted to future climate change is needed [104].
The global seed industry is a cornerstone of global food security and is dependent on the ability to produce viable seeds. Currently, developing countries rely heavily on imports for their domestic seed needs. Moving seed production to higher latitudes or producing cultivars adapted to future climate changes will not be feasible for some regions, leaving them even more dependent on international markets [109]. The Millennium Seed Bank is working with partners to preserve and make available the wild relatives of major crops in a form that can be used to produce new crop varieties suited to changing climates.
Seed Dispersal
Plants need to disperse their seeds in order to ensure that they produce more plants and expand their geographic range. Seeds can be dispersed through wind, animals, water or other means.
Most often, plants are unable to choose where their seeds will be dispersed and therefore have little control over the outcome of the process. However, the structure of a seed and its environment can influence dispersal patterns. For example, shorter trees are more likely to drop their seeds near the parent plant, while taller trees can rely on updrafts and other atmospheric conditions that allow for dispersal over longer distances.
Similarly, frugivorous animals may carry seeds to distant locations through either endozoochory or ectozoochory. In this way, animals can play an important role in determining the genetic diversity of local plant populations. However, in modern times, the relationship between many animal-seed dispersal systems has been disrupted by habitat loss and human development.
Seed Design
Designed to support the design research of UW students, SEED serves as a world, asset library, and research sandbox. Teams of 2D and 3D artists, narrative, systems, and level designers, music composers and audio engineers, user researchers, interface and interaction designers, software engineers, and project managers work together in the lab to evolve the world and bring it to life through music, story, gameplay, and interaction.
Respondents most often identified past personal experience as the tool they use to guide their seed mix design processes, followed by consultation with other practitioners and species composition at high quality reference sites (both rated as important or very important by 95% of respondents). They were less likely to identify scientific literature as a useful tool in seed mix design, but this may be due to the fact that these journals are only accessed by those involved in applied restoration and management. Further research into the role of scientific literature in guiding seed mix design is warranted.
