Fig. 8.
Arrhenius plots showing the temperature dependency of rates of ageing (P50−1) (A) and RNA degradation (B) of seeds in Bass’s sealed can experiment that were stored for 59 years at 4 % moisture and different temperatures. Ageing rate is the reciprocal of longevity and was calculated by the Avrami model in Fig. 6 for each species and temperature combination. RNA degradation rates were calculated from 2017 measurements of RIN, assuming that there was a linear relationship between RIN and time (Fig. 3) and that the maximum RIN (RINmax, average of the five highest RIN values) would be comparable to the RIN value from fresh seeds, had the technology been available in 1959. The R2 value for all lines is >0.90. Slopes range from −4200 to −10 500 and are not significantly different among species or among ageing and RIN measurements (P > 0.05). In (A), the point for safflower at −12 °C was not included in the linear regression.