Soil nitrogen fertilization as a maternal effect on Buglossoides arvensis seed germinability

Abstract

Different ecological strategies are developed by weed species to improve their fitness under unpredictable environmental conditions. Maternal effects are a way to enhance the progeny performance. The external ecological environment of mother plants influences phenotypic traits of the progeny, such as seed germinability. Buglossoides arvensis is a facultative winter annual weed species present in cereal crops of the Semiarid Temperate Region of Argentina. Recently, the intensification of agricultural systems has led to a significant increment of external inputs, such as nitrogen fertilizers. In this work we aimed to determine the effect of different maternal nitrogen fertilization levels on the germinability of two successive progenies (F1-F2). A population-based model was used to estimate thermal time parameters. Our results indicated that under field conditions nitrogen fertilization produced an increment on the germinability of the progeny. Nitrogen supply promoted a widening of the permissive germination thermal range thorough an increment in the mean maximum germination temperature. However, different maternal fertilization levels did not influence germination thermal time requirements either in F1 or F2 progenies. It might be inferred that a significant increment of nitrogen fertilizers supply could increase the probability of occurrence of very early emergence fluxes of B. arvensis. From a weed control perspective, early cohorts occurrence during summer may demand a redesign of the control tactics in order to minimize the potential economic and environmental impact of chemical interventions.