Seed banks: Memory in soil

Abstract

Approaches used to study seed banks and early publications on them are summarized. Current areas of interest are described, including the balance between herbicide-susceptible and herbicide-resistant seed populations, the effects of reduced tillage, the genetic structure of the seed bank, the role of desiccation, the impact of nutrients, oxygen and ortho-dihydroxyphenols, and methods of sampling seed banks and processing the data.