Comparison of Estimation of Soil Weed Seed Bank of Agroecosystem of Moist Tropics India | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

The soil weed seed bank is defined as the mature viable weed seed stocks existing in the soil surface or buried in the soil or litter in an agroecosystem. The information is lacking for many weed species and cropping systems of India and in other agroecosystem of the world determining weed population dynamics. The aim is to evaluate weed seed density in soil seed bank in terms of comparison of two method of seedling germination to get information which method is more appropriate for seed bank estimation for proper weed management in moist tropical agroecosystem. The higher seed density were found in seed extraction method than seed emergence method. The result revealed that both methods are necessary for estimation of soil weed seed bank. In future studies, emergence methods are recommended as basis to evaluate the short-term outcome of the revegetation process if the soil-stored seed bank is used. Both methods were complementary to detect the species composition. Therefore it is suggested that both methods are necessary to describe the seed banks and improve the interpretation of the results. Keywords Soil weed seed bank, seed extraction, wet sieve method, seed emergence method, Agroecosystem, Moist tropics.