Allelopathic effect of Cistus laurifolius and its ecological importance on agroecosystems as abioherbicide

In this thesis, C. laurifolius developed adaptive mechanisms against Pinus nigra (Pine) forest ecosystem and potential use as bioherbicide by taking allelopathic effect responsible for dominant feature in successional stage are discussed. In the first step, role of high temperatures created during fire on germination of C. laurifolius which population dynamics largely dependent fire had examined. The optimum temperature was found to be 100 °C for germination of the plant which we try to explain the role of successional post-fire. C. laurifolius is not climax union of pine forest although allelopathic effect and germination success in high temperatures advantages in successional stages. In this context, allelopathic effect of C. laurifolius which is considered as companion of P. nigra, were investigated P. nigra seeds as well as own seeds. While allelopathic effect on P. nigra seeds was not observed, ototoxic effect was identified in own seeds with amount of allelochemicals deposited in soil associated with increased population density. In second step, taking into consideration social awareness occurs in the direction of threats synthetic herbicides on human and ecosystem health and tendency to ecological approaches among scientists for maintaining sustainable of agricultural production, potential use of the C. laurifolius as a bioherbicide are discussed. Bioherbicide effect of the extract obtained from C. laurifolius was tested on four weed seeds (Amaranthus retroflexus, Melilotus alba, Rumex crispus and Papaver rhoeas) and a crop seed (Triticum aestivum). While C. laurifolius extract completely inhibited germination of A. retroflexus seeds and largely prevented germination of P. rhoeas seeds, it did not cause a significant change in the amounts of germination of other plants. Keywords: Allelopathy, Bioherbicides, Cistus laurifolius, Succession.