The seed bank plays a very important ecological role in supplying new individuals to plant communities. In agro-ecosystems, seed banks normally present a serious problem to agricultural activity, as they guarantee weed infestation for a long period of time, even when the entry of new weed seeds into the area is prevented. Agricultural soil is a large seed deposit; however, the floristic composition of a soil at a certain moment does not represent the real infestation potential, as certain species need special conditions to break dormancy and to germinate. Furthermore, the seeds that are at the surface of the soil are also subjected to predation, parasitism and to being dispersed. Different systems of soil and crop management decisively influence the germination and floristic composition of an area and therefore, the soil seed bank. Due to intra and inter-specific selectivity, the continuous use of herbicides with the same action mechanism, they can cause changes in the composition of the weed community, selecting tolerant species or resistant biotypes to control.
dynamics; germination; herbicides; selection