Dows of Ria de Aveiro is strongly linked to silty sediments which carry high contents of organic matter [21]. Though in our study the grain size and organic matter content of the sediments have been variable, somewhat high values (above two g DW) have been found in all Z. noltei meadows throughout the study period. Mineralisation of organic matter could be the main method that supplies inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus towards the porewater of marine sediments [2,40]. Consequently, a high content of organic matter within the sediments of Ria de Aveiro through the flowering period could happen to be accountable to get a larger nutrient uptake in Z. noltei meadows, extending the period of sexual spathes formation in the lagoon. The continuous formation of Stage I spathes through the study period supports the truth that sexual spathes is usually continually developed in Ria de Aveiro all through the summer and part from the autumn [19]. PHA-543613 MedChemExpress Furthermore, Stage II corresponded to the moment when the spathes opened to expose the female and male organs to facilitate pollination, as well as the percentage of Stage II spathes reached a peak in August, suggesting that, in Z. noltei, longer exposure to higher temperatures could be responsible for the opening of spathes. Because pollination outcomes inside the formation of seeds, the higher proportion of Stage II spathes observed in August might be the origin in the great number of Stage IV spathes in September, which currently carry immature, green seeds in their interior. Following this assumption, the peak of Stage IV spathes in July may be explained by the very first cohort of spathes in Ria de Aveiro. Other environmental stressors in Ria de Aveiro could have also influenced flowering in Z. noltei. Desiccation of the seagrass meadows may very well be one more factor due to the fact Z. noltei in Ria de Aveiro is exposed each day for several hours to high temperature and light incidence through low tide. Also, although the 4 studied Z. noltei meadows had similar values of temperature through the flowering period, they had distinct ranges of seawater salinity. Stormwater runoffs can transport freshwater in the storm drain outlets towards the Mira channel, decreasing salinity in certain regions [26,41]. This effect was noticed in M4 in our study, which showed lower salinities than inside the rest from the meadows. Nonetheless, reproductive effort and phenology in this meadow have been related to other people that had been exposedPlants 2021, ten,10 ofto salinities above 30 psu. For that reason, salinity seems to possess no effect on the flowering in Z. noltei in Ria de Aveiro. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the spathes collected within this meadow created less mature seeds within the laboratory than the other people, which suggests that salinity could negatively have an effect on the formation of seeds in Z. noltei. Cultured spathes didn’t show considerable variations among meadows and sampling dates in the production of mature seeds. The production of seeds per spathe reported right here (0.42 seeds collected spathe) was inside the array of other studies (about 0.2 to 0.7 seeds per spathe) [12,29]. Similarly, the germination prospective in the Z. noltei seeds from Ria de Aveiro (34 ) was comparable to those reported in other research that induced germination at related environmental situations discovered in our experiment (302 ) [12,13,29]. The Cholesteryl sulfate web interplay in between environmental elements that enhance germination in Z. noltei is still poorly understood and, therefore, extra studies are necessary to improve the in vitro germination and in particular t.