Fungal effects on seed bank persistence and potential applications in weed biocontrol: A review

Seed bank formation plays an important role in plant population dynamics. However, buried seeds face several mortality factors, including the decay caused by microbial activity. Recent seed burial studies involving both fungicide-treated seeds and untreated seeds provide evidence for the importance of saprophytic soil fungi as a seed mortality factor. In this review, we summarize the available evidence. We discuss the influence of abiotic and biotic environmental factors, the specificity of plant-fungal associations at the seed level and mechanisms of resistance to seed decay. Finally, we discuss implications for plant communities and for the biocontrol of agricultural weeds. (C) 2007 Gesellschaft fur Okologie. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.