Our main aim was to determine the contribution of the seed bank to vegetation regeneration following a disturbance consisting in a deep ploughing and a thorough homogenisation of a perennial grassland. In the seed bank prior to disturbance, seed distribution through the vertical soil profile was evaluated to determine the initial seed species structure. Then, several characteristics of the shal...

A study was initiated in 2001at four locations in western Canada to investigate an integrated approach to managing wild oat, the region’s worst weed. The study examined the effects of combining semidwarf or tall barley cultivars with normal or twice-normal barley seeding rates in either continuous barley or a barley–canola–barley–field pea–barley rotation. Herbicides were applied at 25, 50, and...

SUMMERY The water-impermeable seed coat of 'hard' seeds is commonly considered a dormancy trait. Seed smell is, however, strongly correlated with seed water content, and hard seeds are therefore olfactionally cryptic to foraging rodents. This is the rationale for the crypsis hypothesis, which proposes that the primary functions of hard seeds are to reduce seed predation and promote rodent seed ...

Seed size in higher plants is an important agronomic trait, and is also crucial for evolutionary fitness. In flowering plants, the seed comprises three major anatomical components, the embryo, the endosperm and the seed coat, each with different genetic compositions. Therefore, seed size is coordinately determined by the growth of the embryo, endosperm and maternal tissue. Recent studies have r...

Seed limitation, defined as the failure of seeds to arrive at sites favorable for recruitment, may be a critical force structuring plant communities. When seed limitation is strong, interspecific competition is reduced, and competitive exclusion may be slowed to the extent that diversity can be maintained through speciation and migration. In mature tropical forests, seed limitation may be espec...

seed loss at harvesting time is one of the factors reducing seed yield in at farms. this study was carried out within a research farm in karaj to evaluate and select a proper pinto bean line for mechanized harvesting at two moisture contents during harvesting and their effect on seed yield and yield loss among three lines of pinto bean. the experiment was split-plot based on randomized complete...

Introduction This FAC Policy Brief examines the political and economic processes governing Ethiopian cereal seed systems by analysing the overall policy context, including the main interests driving seed policy formulation and implementation, and the roles and interaction of the different public and private actors. It also investigates how these interests and interactions are related to the act...

The free distribution of seeds and tools is the standard approach to agricultural recovery. The predominance of this approach is partly attributable to the: (1) perception that farmer seed quality is poor, (2) insistence on seed certification, (3) promotion of researcher varieties, (4) misdiagnosis of unavailability, (5) difficulty accessing farmer seed, and (6) support for the commercial seed ...