Seed priming (SP) treatments are widely used in agriculture and restoration to improve seed germination and seedling vigor. Although there exists a considerable amount of scientific literature on SP, it has seldom undergone visual and quantitative analyses. To gain insights into the patterns observed in SP research over the last three decades, we conducted a bibliometric analysis using the Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCI-E) database, aiming to minimize the similarity score in plagiarism detection. This analysis offers a thorough examination of yearly publications, temporal patterns in keyword usage, the top-performing journals, authors, institutions, and countries within the field of SP. Our research findings suggest a steady annual increase of 10.59% in the volume of SP publications, accompanied by a significant upward trajectory in the average citations received per paper annually. According to the analysis of keywords, it was found that “priming” and “germination” emerged as the most frequently used terms in the field of SP research. Seed Science and Technology ranked first among the top journals, and Plant Physiology had greater influence in the field of SP in terms of number of citations. The majority of the top 10 productive institutions were situated in developing countries. In addition, these nations exhibited the highest volume of published works and citations. Our analysis revealed a shift in research focus within the field of SP over the past three decades, transitioning from agricultural science to encompass plant science and environmental science. With the growing recognition of SP’s research across different disciplines, there exist abundant prospects for international and interdisciplinary partnerships, collaborative organizations, and progress in this field.

Fall dormancy plays important roles in the evaluation of alfalfa’s winter hardiness and in the selection of alfalfa breeding. A rapid and effective method to estimate the fall dormancy rating of alfalfa will shorten the breeding cycle. The purpose of this study is to test the correlations between the germination thermal time model parameters and the fall dormancy ratings and to evaluate the potential of the thermal-based fall dormancy methodology. Alfalfa cultivars with a series of fall dormancy ratings were used to study the responses of seed germination at six constant temperatures (5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 °C). The results showed that all cultivars had a relatively high germination percentage at all temperatures and the optimal temperature is 25 or 30 °C. Germination rate and base temperature significantly increased with the fall dormancy rating of alfalfa cultivars while thermal time (θ_T) decreased with the fall dormancy rating. The extremely significant linear regression relationships between the germination rate, base temperature (T_b), θ_T, and fall dormancy rating indicated that it is convenient and straightforward to predict the fall dormancy rating of unknown cultivars or lines using thermal time model parameters. This method can significantly shorten the selection and breeding cycles in alfalfa cultivation.

Germination events of plants often occur after rainfall in saline environments where the soil salinity is diluted, viz recovery germination. Previous germination studies have rarely considered the duration of exposure to salt stress, and none of them have investigated recovery germination under low-salt concentration, other than in distilled water. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of salinity, exposure duration and low-salt recovery solutions on seed germination of the weed Chenopodium acuminatum to get a clear insight about the germination strategy exhibited by this species in a saline habitat. Seeds were initially exposed to 0–400 mM NaCl for 10, 20 and 30 d. The subsequent recovery experiment was conducted differently. For those initially treated with 100 and 200 mM NaCl, the recovery solution was distilled water, while for those initially treated with 300 and 400 mM NaCl, the recovery solution was distilled water, at 50 and 100 mM NaCl. Results showed that the recovery germination percentage and rate significantly decreased when the exposure duration extended. Seeds could subsequently recover to germinate at high percentages at recovery salt solution concentrations for a short duration, but the recovery percentages and rates in high salinity, combined with high exposure duration and relatively high recovery salt concentrations, were remarkably lower. More than 30% of the ungerminated seeds were viable after the recovery experiment. We suggest that Ch. acuminatum exhibits a ‘cautious’ strategy of germination to avoid injury from long-term salt stress and ensure survival for the subsequent continuation of its population under unfavorable saline conditions.

Climate warming and drought often co-occur to form warm–dry climate patterns. However, systematic comparative studies of the responses of invasive plants from different families to their combined effects remain limited. We conducted a greenhouse experiment to investigate the interactive effects of warm (normal vs. warming) and drought (well-watered vs. drought) conditions on the growth, root traits, and competitive performance of 11 invasive plant species from three families (Amaranthaceae, Poaceae, and Asteraceae) growing in competition with native communities. Our results showed that warming did not significantly increase the total biomass of all invasive species combined but significantly promoted biomass accumulation in Poaceae and Asteraceae. Drought consistently reduced the biomass across all invasive species. Notably, a marginally significant interaction effect of warm and drought conditions on the biomass proportion of Amaranthaceae was detected. Specifically, under normal conditions, drought increased the biomass proportion of Amaranthaceae species, whereas under the warming treatment, drought decreased it. Furthermore, root traits of invasive species exhibited clear family level differentiation. Poaceae adopted an expansion strategy by increasing root length and root surface area under warming treatment, Amaranthaceae exhibited a contraction strategy by reducing root investment under drought treatment, and Asteraceae displayed an efficient strategy with increased specific root length under drought treatment. Except for the biomass proportion of Amaranthaceae, no significant interactive effects were found for most other parameters, indicating that the combined effects of warming and drought were primarily additive. Our results revealed that warm, dry climates influence invasive plants in a taxon-specific manner, with different families employing distinct root trait adjustment strategies in response to environmental stress. These findings highlight the importance of family level comparative studies for predicting invasion dynamics and developing targeted management strategies for future climate scenarios.