How much of seed dormancy in weeds can be related to seed traits?
2015
Gardarin, Antoine | Colbach, Nathalie
Seed dormancy contributes to species persistence in unpredictable environments and is a key process to be taken into account in weed dynamics models. As the level of seed dormancy, photosensitivity and the dates of dormancy induction and release are difficult to measure, our objective was to relate weed seed dormancy with morphological, chemical or physiological seed traits and with expert knowledge. Dormancy of four species was studied experimentally during a 2-year seed burial experiment. Experiments were supplemented with data from the literature to increase the number of species analysed, resulting in a data set of 29 species. Proportions of non-dormant seeds were higher for elongated than spherical seeds, even when accounting for phylogenetic relatedness between species. Elongated seeds, which tend to remain on the soil surface in undisturbed habitats, may have been selected for lack of dormancy and immediate germination to limit mortality due to predation. Dormancy increased with seed coat thickness, which can act as a chemical and physical barrier to germination, while no relation was found with seed lipid or protein content. No correlation was found between photosensitivity parameters and any of the species traits analysed. Variations in dormancy dates (induction and release) were highly correlated with average field emergence season estimated from expert knowledge. The observed correlations suggest that the level of dormancy results both from direct and from indirect effects of traits being involved in trade-offs together with seed mortality.
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