Beta
382401

Energy content of plant organs and population cohorts in Moringa peregrina: a perspective for species management in arid regions

Article

Last updated: 01 Jan 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

-

Abstract

Management plans for conservation and sustainable use of Moringa peregrina trees are needed to overcome overexploitation coupled with climate change effects. We examined the relationship between the stored energy and the persistence of the species. We conducted field, greenhouse, and lab experiments; at the levels of population cohorts, plant organs, seeds, and seedlings, to demonstrate the relationship between energy content and the persistence potential of the species. Seedlings and juveniles stored around 12,000 joule/g in roots, while uncoppiced adults stored about 9,000 joule/g in stems, and coppiced adults stored 1,800-4,000 joule/g in lignotubers. In adult trees, the number of sprouting stems is correlated with the energy content in lignotubers. Over the ten years of seed storage, a rapid rate of energy depletion was observed ranging from 16,821 to 5,059 joule/g, which is associated with decreased germination and viability. The amount of energy content in two-month-old seedlings varied from 240,000, to 800,000 joule/seedlings under 200 and 800 mm rainfall respectively. We reported an unstable population structure that could be ascribed to the depletion of stored energy in lignotubers following uncontrolled coppicing, and the rapid depletion of seed energy which hinders the persistence of M. peregrina populations.

DOI

10.21608/ejbo.2024.255460.2610

Keywords

Energy Content, Population Demography, Coppicing, Lignotuber, seed germination, resource allocation

Authors

First Name

Ahmed

Last Name

Hegazy

MiddleName

Kamel

Affiliation

Cairo Univiresty

Email

hegazy@sci.cu.edu.eg

City

Giza

Orcid

0000-0002-5286-7998

First Name

Mohamed

Last Name

Okla

MiddleName

K

Affiliation

Botany Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia

Email

okla103@yahoo.com

City

Riyadh

Orcid

0000-0002-4420-0587

First Name

Zahra

Last Name

Hussein

MiddleName

Saleh

Affiliation

Faculty of Biotechnology, October University for Moden Sciences and Arts (MSA), 6th of October, Egypt

Email

zsaleh@msa.edu.eg

City

Cairo

Orcid

0000-0002-9219-4257

Volume

64

Article Issue

4

Related Issue

50599

Issue Date

2024-12-01

Receive Date

2023-12-14

Publish Date

2024-12-01

Page Start

127

Page End

139

Print ISSN

0375-9237

Online ISSN

2357-0350

Link

https://ejbo.journals.ekb.eg/article_382401.html

Detail API

https://ejbo.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=382401

Order

11

Type

Special Issue (Original Article)

Type Code

2,866

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Journal of Botany

Publication Link

https://ejbo.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Energy content of plant organs and population cohorts in Moringa peregrina: a perspective for species management in arid regions

Details

Type

Article

Created At

30 Dec 2024