The Importance of Cotyledons for Early-Stage Oak Seedlings Under Different Nutrient Levels: A Multi-species Study

Oaks produce acorns containing a large amount of reserves in their cotyledons, which are important for the early development of seedlings. However, it remains unclear at what level oak seedlings will rely on cotyledonary reserves under different soil nutrition levels. We carried out an indoor experiment to quantify seedling growth, mobilization of cotyledonary reserves, and soil-derived N in seedlings of eleven red and white oak species in response to contrasting soil nutrition levels. Our results showed that dry masses of shoots, roots, whole seedlings, and the remnant cotyledons did not vary significantly in response to soil nutrition levels. Moreover, soil-derived N contents in oak seedlings were not significantly different under contrasting soil nutrition levels, reflecting a low morphological and physiological plasticity of oak seedlings to soil fertilization at early growth stage. Lower soil-derived N incorporated into seedlings suggests that oaks rely mainly on cotyledonary reserves for seedling development regardless of soil fertility. A positive correlation between mean fresh masses of acorns and mean dry masses of seedlings at the interspecific level further indicates that reserves in acorns rather than soil nutrition play an important role in supporting oak seedling growth at the early stage.