Spatial heterogeneity of abiotic factors influences patterns of seedling establishment at different scales. In stress-prone ecosystems such as Mediterranean ones, heterogeneity generated by shrubs has been shown to facilitate the establishment of tree species. However, how this facilitation is affected by spatial scale remains poorly understood. We have experimentally analysed the consequences ...

Cereal grain germination is central for plant early development, and efficient germination has a major role in crop propagation and malting. Endosperm starch is the prime energy reserve in germination and seedling establishment. In this study, it was hypothesized that optimized starch granule structure, and not only the endosperm starch content per se, is important for germination and seedling ...

Although many plant communities are invaded by multiple nonnative species, we have limited information on how a species' origin affects ecosystem function. We tested how differences in species richness and origin affect productivity and seedling establishment. We created phylogenetically paired native and nonnative plant communities in a glasshouse experiment to test diversity-productivity rela...

Effects of prescribed fires on the 1-year establishment of white oak seedlings were investigated on the Clemson Experimental Forest, South Carolina, USA. Three stands, each consisting of a burn and a control treatment of about 1 ha in size, were examined in the study. On each burn and control treatment, six to eight dominant white oak trees were randomly selected along the slope and four 2-m ra...

Waterlogging tolerance is typically evaluated at a specific development stage, with an implicit assumption that differences in waterlogging tolerance expressed in these systems will result in improved yield performance in fields. It is necessary to examine these criteria in fields. In the present study, three experiments were conducted to screen waterlogging tolerance in 25 rapeseed (Brassica n...

Direct seeding method of rice planting offers several advantages. However, all rice cultivars are not suitable for this practice. In this report forty-three high yield rice varieties and an anoxia/hypoxia tolerant control land race were studied to verify their suitability to establish seedling under anaerobic conditions. The study was conducted in controlled field conditions. The percentage of ...

abstract in this study the effects and costs of application of two kinds of super absorbent polymer on the establishment and surviving of seedlings was investigated. experiments were done in the field and on two kind of soil with different salinity (ec: 4.5 and 8 dsm-1). the results showed: the establishment rate of seedling in control was about 40 percent. the percentage of seedling establishm...

1 The role of seed limitation in tropical forests remains uncertain owing to the scarcity of experimental evidence. We performed seed addition experiments to assess seed limitation for 32 shade-tolerant tropical forest species and monitored the natural seed rain of 25 of these species for 17 years. 2 One, two or five seeds were sown into 0.0079-m 2 plots for large( n = 5 species), medium( n = 5...

a semi-automatic 9-row transplanter for bare root seedlings has recently been developed at the isfahan center for agricultural research that plants 80 seedlings/m2 using 9 operators at a capacity of 0.3 ha/d (8 h). separating a single seedling from a bunch and dropping it into a distributer cell by hand takes 1 s on average. at a density of 700-800 thousand/ha, the travel speed should not excee...