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soil seed bank
Hello to all...
As I opened up some soil sample bags today that had
been in cold storage, I noticed many germinated seedlings... A number of
ideas and questions came to my mind...
I know that at the Beltsville sustainable ag for eroded lands
demonstration plots, Dr. J. Teasdale is monitoring the effect of different
cropping systems on the soil seed bank... it is my
recollection that in this cropping experiment
where the field operators either do not have appropriate equipment
or operator skill for mechanical weed control (this is just an
observation - not intended to insult anyone), the mechanically
cultivated plots are gaining significantly in weed seeds while the no-till
plots with herbcides are not... (perhaps someone that is involved with
this experiment can provide some details)
I am wondering whether monitoring of the seed bank has been done for any
of the famous or not so famous longterm cropping
experiments ?
What is the seed mass/gram soil in a very weedy soil ?
Have the finer ecological implications of the soil seed bank been
studied... i.e. what soil biota are involved with regulating the soil
seed bank... what is known about soil seed bank equilibria ?
Seeds would seem to be a pretty high quality food source relative to other
soil detritus...
I recall hearing about a recent study that indicated that in a
comparison of notill and clean tillage, there
was much greater consumption of weed seeds by mice and other soil
fauna... anyone have the citation ?
A school of thought among many organic growers is that vigilant intensive
cultivation year after year will deplete the soil seed bank and greatly
reduce weed pressure... has this been documented ?
Is soil seed bank scouting ever used as part of commercial weed management
strategy ?
It seems that any evaluation of whether a management system is aggrading
or degrading its productive potential should include soil seed bank
monitoring. Can someone refer me to a standard protocol for seed
bank analysis...
Surely the effect of crop rotation on the soil seed bank has been
investigated... is anyone familiar with any studies ??
Has a focus on herbicide trials and other industry driven weed science
research created a paucity of soil seed bank investigation or is this a
well researched subject ?
Looking forward to hearing your ideas on the soil seed bank...
Joel Gruver
U of MD
Soil Quality research
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