Vertical distribution of soil seed bank and the ecological importance of deeply buried seeds in alkaline grasslands.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Soil seed banks play a central role in vegetation dynamics and may be an important source of ecological restoration. However, the vast majority of seed bank studies examined only the uppermost soil layers (0-10 cm); hence, our knowledge on the depth distribution of seed bank and the ecological significance of deeply buried seeds is limited. The aim of our study was to examine the fine-scale vertical distribution of soil seed bank to a depth of 80 cm, which is one of the largest studied depth gradients so far. Our model systems were alkaline grasslands in East-Hungary, characterised by harsh environmental conditions, due to Solonetz soil reference group with Vertic horizon. We asked the following questions: (1) How do the seedling density and species richness of soil seed

SUBMITTER: Toth A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8992659 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature