Soil seed bank recovery occurs more rapidly than expected in semi-arid Mediterranean gypsum vegetation.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Seed banks are critical in arid ecosystems and ensure the persistence of species. Despite the importance of seed banks, knowledge about their formation and the extent to which a seed bank can recover after severe perturbation remains scarce. If undisturbed, soil seed banks reflect a long vegetation history; therefore, we would expect that new soil seed banks and those of undisturbed soils require long periods to become similar with respect to both density and composition. In contrast, if soil seed banks are only a short- to mid-term reservoir in which long-term accumulation constitutes only a tiny fraction, they will recover rapidly from the vegetation. To shed light on this question, we evaluated seed bank formation in a semi-arid gypsum community.

Methods</

SUBMITTER: Olano JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3241582 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature