The ‘black box’ of plant demography: how do seed type, climate and seed fungal communities affect grass seed germination?

Summary Demographic studies measure drivers of plant fecundity including seed production and survival, but few address both abiotic biotic germination such as variation in climate among sites, population density, maternal plants, type fungal pathogen abundance. We examined microbial communities seeds Danthonia californica , which are either chasmogamous (external, wind‐pollinated) or cleistogamous (internal, self‐fertilized) Festuca roemeri solely chasmogamous. Seed populations were sourced across environmental gradients. tested used high‐throughput sequencing to characterize community structure. For F . plants significantly influenced did pathogens; increased from wetter, cooler sites. D the main plant, on average, more germinated. Fungal depended largely type, with fewer fungi associated seeds, also site factors vapor pressure deficit, density whether had Putative pathogens that negatively correlated abundant for than seeds. In contain vastly different communities.