Effects of Seed Priming on Germination Characteristics of Bromus Species under Salt and Drought Conditions

4 Abstract It has been estimated that about nine million square kilometers of the world's arid rangelands have been turned into man- made deserts over the past half century. B. inermis was introduced as a livestock improvement crop, it has since invaded natural prairies and grasslands, outcompeting native grasses and decreasing biodiversity. The increasing frequency of dry periods in many regions of the world and the problems associated with salinity in irrigated areas frequently result in the consecutive occurrence of drought and salinity on cultivated land. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of seed priming on germination characteristics of Bromus species under stressful conditions. For osmopriming treatment, Bromus seeds were immersed in -0.6 MPa of PEG solutions at 25°C for 12 hours under dark conditions and seed were soaked for 12h in distilled water for hydropriming treatment.Drought condition was simulated by using PEG6000 according to Kuffman formula. Our results showed that Bromus could be categorized as a salt tolerant plant and its more tolerate to salinity than drought stress. Seed priming is a good seed enhancement technique for improving seed germination and faster seed germination of Bromus seeds.