6533b82bfe1ef96bd128d309

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Weed seeds ability to emerge on the soil surface

subject

description

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 Huds., Amaranthus retroflexus L., Avena fatua L., Bromus sterilis L., Capsella bursapastoris(L.) Medik., Cyanus segetum L., Chenopodium album L., Geranium dissectum L., Poaannua L., Sonchus asper (L.) Hill, Veronica persica Poir., Vulpia myuros (L.) C.C.GME L.). Sixmodalities were tested (with 5 replicates): MDS (moistened seeds in darkness and then placed onthe soil surface), MLS (moistened in light and placed on the surface), DLS (dried in light andplaced on the surface), MDB (moistened in darkness and then 0.5 cm-buried), MLB (moistened inlight and 0.5 cm-buried), DLB (dried in light and 0.5 cm-buried). Datasets were analysed withgeneralized linear model (GLM, binomial distribution).