Seed and seedling traits govern plant fitness and persistence and are influenced by the interaction between the plant and its environment. Changing climatic and edaphic conditions will drastically affect early fitness-related traits and can alter the demography and species distribution range. It is widely documented that trait variation among populations may increase resilience of tree communities and reduce the risk of extinction under future climates. In the present study, variation in seed and seedling traits were documented from seven populations of Santalum album representing the natural distribution range of the species in the Indian subcontinent. Significant intra-specific variation was documented in seed and seedling traits, indicating high adaptive potential of the species. Further, the measured traits were correlated with climatic variables. No significant correlation was predicted for seed-related traits, while seedling-related traits like shoot and root weight, photochemical reflectance index, relative water content, and root–shoot ratio correlated with different climatic parameters. Variance partitioning revealed predominant combined effect of environment and genotype on seed traits except seed weight, which was governed by genotypic effect. The dominance of genotypic effect was documented for all seed leachate parameters, while seedling-related traits were predominantly affected by the environment. Conservation of sandalwood genetic resources will benefit from the insights gained from the variability recorded in these fitness-related traits, which are likely to affect the adaptive potential of the species.

种子和幼苗性状决定着植物的适应性和持久性，并受到植物与其环境之间相互作用的影响。气候和土壤条件的变化将极大地影响早期的适应性相关特征，并可能改变人口统计和物种分布范围。广泛记录表明，种群之间的性状变异可能会增强树木群落的恢复力，并降低未来气候下灭绝的风险。在本研究中，记录了代表印度次大陆该物种自然分布范围的七个檀香种群种子和幼苗性状的变化。种子和幼苗性状记录了显着的种内变异，表明该物种具有很高的适应潜力。此外，测量的性状与气候变量相关。种子相关性状没有预测显着相关性，而幼苗相关性状（如芽和根重量、光化学反射指数、相对含水量和根冠比）与不同的气候参数相关。方差分配揭示了环境和基因型对种子性状的主要综合影响，种子重量除外，种子重量受基因型效应控制。所有种子浸出液参数均记录了基因型效应的主导地位，而幼苗相关性状主要受环境影响。檀香遗传资源的保护将受益于从这些与适应性相关的性状中记录的变异性中获得的见解，这些性状可能会影响物种的适应潜力。