MODELING THE GERMINATION RESPONSE TO TEMPERATURE AND WATER POTENTIAL

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.