Breaking of Seed Dormancy by Nitrate as a Gap Detection Mechanism

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Germination of Planlago lanceolata seeds buried in a chalk grassland was higher in bare soil than in vegetated soil, and measurement of soil nitrate concentrations showed that they were high enough to account for this stimulation. When seeds of P. lanceolata were sown in pots of soil with or without plants, and watered with nutrient solution containing either no nitrate, or 14 mM nitrate (sufficiently high that not all nitrate was absorbed by the plants), the presence of plants inhibited germination only when the nutrient solution contained no nitrate. It was concluded that breaking of seed dormancy by nitrate can function as a gap detection mechanism if nitrate concentrations in bare soil are high enough to break seed dormancy, but are too low to break dormancy when vegetation is present

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: