Weed seeds ability to emerge on the soil surface

International audience; Annual weeds have to produce seeds each year to maintain their populations. These seeds fallon the soil surface. Seeds exposed to light during their moistening (i.e. caused by rain) bettergerminate than seeds in the darkness (i.e. buried). However, rare studies quantified the unique andcombined effects of light, moisture and burial depth on the germination process. We investigated,in a greenhouse experiment in 2014, the impact of seed moisture (Moistened vs. Dried), lightduring moistening (Darkness vs. Light) and burial depth (Buried vs. Surface) on germination of 12annual weed species contrasted on their seed traits and germination periods (Alopecurusmyosuroides Hud…