TITLE:
Depletion of an Artificial Seed Bank of Palmer Amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri) over Four Years of Burial*
AUTHORS:
Prashant Jha, Jason K. Norsworthy, Josefina Garcia
KEYWORDS:
Burial, Dormancy, Persistence, Soil Seed Bank, Seedling Emergence, Tillage
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.5 No.11,
May
19,
2014
ABSTRACT: An artificial seed bank study
was conducted at Pendleton, SC, USA, to investigate the persistence of Palmer amaranth seeds buried uniformly across a 10-cm depth in soil inside
polyvinyl chloride (PVC) cylindrical pipes over 4 years. The experiment was
conducted using a split-plot design, with year as the main plot factor and with
or without soil disturbance (shallow tillage to a depth of 10 cm) as the
subplot factor. Annual soil disturbance through tillage in the spring
stimulated emergence during the first and second year after burial. A total of
0.5% to 0.8% of the seed bank emerged during the 4-yr burial period, and 99% or
more of the 4-yr total emergence occurred during the first two years of burial.
Seeds retrieved from 0 to 5 cm and 5 to 10 cm depths did not differ in
viability. Soil disturbance influenced the decline of the artificial seed bank
at least in the first year, with fewer viable seeds remaining in
annually-disturbed plots. Regardless of soil disturbance, a small fraction of
seeds (0.01% to 0.03% of original seed bank) remained viable in the soil after
four years of burial. In conclusion, Palmer amaranth seeds buried across a 10 cm
soil depth in the artificial seed bank had low persistence, which implies that
burial may aid management of the weed seed bank.