Field Experiment for the Effects of Rice Straw Returning and Seeding Pattern on Wheat Seedling Emergence and Grain Yield

In order to study the effect of rice straw returning and seeding patterns on seedling emergence and grain yield, field experiment was conducted to investi- gate the effects of straw mechanized returning and different seeding patterns on e- mergence rate, emergence uniformity and yield traits of wheat after rice. The results were as follows： in rice straw removal treatments, the emergence rate of mechani- cal seeding in drill was lower than that of mechanical uniform planting and manual broadcast sowing, which were 51.84%, 90.89% and 88.87%, respectively; the emer- gence uniformity of manual broadcast sowing was inferior to mechanical seeding in drill and mechanical uniform planting, which were 0.49, 0.26 and 0.23, respectively. As for the treatments with rice straw returning to the field, the emergence rate and emergence uniformity all decreased in the three seeding patterns, of which mechan- ical seeding in drill dropped markedly with emergence rate decreased by 36.54%. The emergence rate and emergence uniformity affected grain yield by affecting pan- icle, grains per spike and 1 000-grain weight. The grain yield for the treatment with rice straw removal was 6 091.34 kg/hm2, while that with rice straw returning to field was 6 476.20 kg/hm2, and both were higher than the yields of the other two seed- ing patterns. Therefore, mechanical uniform planting was？recommended for its higher emergence rate, better emergence uniformity, which was conductive to increase grain yield in wheat after rice production with rice straw returning to field.

Effects of temperature and light on seed germination of ephemeral plants in the Gurbantunggut Desert, China: implications for vegetation restoration

Seed germination is a key transitional stage in plant life cycle and is strongly regulated by temperature and light.Therefore, research on the effects of temperature and light on seed germination is extremely meaningful for vegetation restoration, especially in desert ecosystems.Seeds of 28 ephemeral plants collected from the Gurbantunggut Desert of China were incubated at different temperatures(5℃/1℃, 15℃/5℃, 20℃/5℃, 25℃/10℃ and 30℃/15℃) in 12-h light/12-h darkness or continuous darkness regimes, and the responses of seed germination to temperature and light and the germination speed were studied in 2016.Results showed that seed germination percentage of the 28 ephemeral plants significantly differed to temperature and light.We classified the studied plants as the following groups based on their responses to temperature: 1 low temperature responsed plants, 12 moderate temperature responsed plants, 7 high temperature responsed plants, 4 non-responsed plants and 5 plants of no germination.It should be noted that Corispermum lehmannianum Bunge is sensitive to both moderate and high temperatures.There were 4 groups of plant in response to light, i.e., 7 light responsed plants, 10 dark responsed plants, 6 light non-responsed plants and 5 plants of no germination.Based on seed germination speed of the 28 ephemeral plants, we divided them into 4 patterns of germination, i.e., very rapid, moderately rapid, moderate and slow.Combining variations of temperature, precipitation and sand dune types in the study area, we suggested that very rapid and moderately rapid germinated plants could be used to moving sand dunes in early spring during vegetation restoration, moderate germinated plants could be used to semi-fixed sand dunes in late autumn, and slow germinated plants could be used to sand plain in summer.Thus, seedling establishment and vegetation restoration would be improved by considering seed germination characteristics of these ephemeral plants in the Gurbantunggut Desert, China.