MODELING THE GERMINATION RESPONSE TO TEMPERATURE AND WATER POTENTIAL

Abstract

Many studies on seed germination are carried out testing the effect of environmental factors, particularly water and temperature which
are considered the main factors for successfully germination. Moreover, in most of these studies the authors ignore - either
by ignorance or by unfamiliarity with the method - some analysis tools available in the scientific literature, which are useful
both for data interpretation and modeling of germination based on parameters with biological meaning, thereby open new
perspectives for advances in the creation of more accurate models for predicting the behavior of seed populations in the
field. In this article, the hydrotime and hydrothermal time models are introduced in order to familiarize the reader with the
theoretical basis of such models and provide examples of how to use them in the analysis of germination assays.