Abstract: In plant life history, seed dispersal and seed dormancy are survival strategies to improve seed germination rate, which can avoid the risks from seed germination to seedling establishment in time and space. The relationship between seed dispersal and dormancy is crucial for understanding plant adaption to environmental stresses. In this study, 1017 articles published from 1999 to 2022 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection on the topic of “seed dispersal” or “seed dormancy”. The literature data were extracted by using the bibliometrix package of the bibliometric tool CiteSpace 6.2.R1 and R software. The statistic information was visualized for annual number of publications, countries of published articles, authors, and keywords. Based on literature review, we found that: (1) There was a significant negative correlation between seed dispersal and seed dormancy, and the degree of significance varied with environmental changes and tissue level; (2) In adapting to the extreme environment, some desert plants have evolved two or more forms of seeds, corresponding to different combinations of dispersal capacity and dormancy level, so as to improve the survival rate of seeds after dispersal and to expand population range; (3) Dormancy keeps seeds alive during the dispersal process, so the tradeoff between the optimal dispersal distance and the dormancy level is one of the main issues about species regeneration strategies; (4) The dormancy and dispersal characteristics of seeds coevolved with other life history strategies, and the relationship between seed dispersal and dormancy is affected by environmental temperature, rainfall, number and size of seeds. The evolutionary goal of seed dormancy and dispersal strategies is to help species cope with the unpredictability of their living environment, improve fitness, and maintain the ability of species to regenerate and reproduce. Understanding the relationship between plant seed dormancy and dispersal depends on the joint exploration of plant life history strategies.

Key words: seed dispersal, seed dormancy, seed heteromorphism, dispersal-dormancy trade-off, propagation strategy