Effect of environmental conditions on Alopecurus myosuroides germination. I. Effect of temperature and light

Abstract

Summary Control of Alopecurus myosuroides with a minimum amount of herbicide may be improved by models describing the impact of cropping system effects on the weed's demography. In order to develop the submodel relating the weed seedbank to the emerged seedlings, a series of laboratory experiments was set up to analyse and quangify the effects on A. myosuroides germination of temperature, storage location, seed age and light incidence for various seed populations. The minimum temperature requirement for germination was estimated at 0 °C, and it did not depend on seed population or weight. In the subsequent experiments, a four-parameter non-linear equation depending on accumulated day-degrees was fitted to the observed germination data, resulting in the estimation of parameters quangifying germination proportion and rate. Storage location had little influence on germination. Germination proportion and rate increased with seed age and were higher in light than in darkness. The later the germinating seeds were submitted to light, the less was their germination stimulated. These observations were synthesized by a series of equations quangifying the relative variation in germination parameters as a function of storage and light conditions, independent of seed population.