Abstract: Germination of 12 shrub species from eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was tested at four constant temperatures (10, 15, 20, and 25 ℃) and one alternating temperature (5/25 ℃) under two storage conditions (outdoor burial and indoor dry storage).The relationships between seed germination and storage condition, seed size and habitat were also tested. The results indicted that, the seeds stored indoors had the highest germination percentage and fastest germination rate at 5/25 ℃. The seeds buried outdoors had highest germination percentage at 10 ℃ and 5/25 ℃, the fastest germination rate at 5/25 ℃, the lowest germination rate at 10 ℃, and the lowest germination percentage at 25℃. The mean germination rate of the studied species was increased with increasing temperature. The germination percentage and germination rate of the seeds buried outdoors at 10, 15, 20, 25 ℃ were higher than those of the seeds stored indoors. However, an opposite result was found at 5/25 ℃. For the seeds stored indoors, there were significant negative correlations between germination percentage, germination rate and seed size at 5/25 ℃. For the seeds buried outdoors, there were significant negative correlations between germination percentage or rate and seed size at 10 ℃ and 5/25 ℃, and there also were significant negative correlations between germination rate and seed size at 20 ℃, but no relationships between germination percentage or rate and seed size at other temperatures. The seeds from the southern slope boscage had high germination percentages and germination rates at all the five temperatures regardless of storage condition, with the highest and lowest germination percentages observed at 5/25 and 15 ℃, respectively. The seeds from the northern slope boscage had the highest germination percentages at 5/25 ℃ regardless of storage condition, and the germination percentage decreased with the increase of temperature, regardless of storage condition. We concluded that temperature fluctuation benefited seed germination. The effect of storage condition on seed germination showed strong temperature dependence and the relationship between seed germination and seed size and habitat also varied with culture temperature and storage condition.

Key words: forest fire, Prometheus model., Farsite model, fire behavior