Reintroducing Capparaceae nurse plant species to restore overgrazed semiarid chaco forests in Argentina: A study of seed germination to facilitate seedling production.

MARTÍNEZ GÁLVEZ, M. F; CROCE JOHANNA; TRIGO, CAROLINA; TÁLAMO, A.; ALAUIE, EMILIANO; BASKIN CAROLA

Connecticut, New Haven, EEUU

Conferencia; Connecting Communities and Ecosystems in Restoration Practice; 2018

Southern Connecticut State University

Overgrazing of Semiarid Chaco Forest (Argentina) drastically diminishes the vegetation coverand compacts the soil creating "peladares" (vegetation gaps). To recover these environments, it isnecessary to perform environmental restoration techniques. Reintroducing nurse plant species is aconvenient technique because these plants provide a favorable microsite to protect other plantspecies that may have been dispersed to the site and have regenerated from seeds. Capparaceaeshrubs could perform as good nurse plants because they are not palatable and form perennialcanopies. However, to produce new individuals for restoration activities, we must know theirgermination requirements. We studied the germination requirements of five species ofCapparaceae shrubs from Semiarid Chaco Forest: Anisocapparis speciosa, Cynophalla retusa,Capparis atamisquea, Capparicordis tweedieana, and Sarcotoxicum salicifolium. We evaluatedseed germination in light/dark at 27°C. For those species with less than 70% germination, weevaluated the ability of seeds to imbibe water and we applied dormancy-breaking treatments(dry storage at room temperature, cold and warm stratification, and hormone treatments). Seedsof A. speciosa and C. retusa were not dormant and germinated to high percentages.Nevertheless, C. atamisquea, C. tweedieana, and S. salicifolium seeds germinated to less than70%; furthermore, they had water-permeable seed coats. The best treatment to promotegermination of C. tweedieana seeds was warm stratification at 30°C during 6 weeks. Still, wecould not improve germination of S. salicifolium and C. atamisquea seeds with the pretreatmentstested; thus, further studies are needed. Propagation of some Capparaceae species, in some casesusing a pretreatment, is now possible; which means that seedlings of these species can beproduced for restoration programs in Semiarid Chaco Forest (Argentina).