Composition and viability of the seed bank along a successional gradient on a Baltic sea shore meadow

Abstract

The seed‐bank in a Baltic sea‐shore meadow was studied and soil samples were taken regularly along a 60‐m transect. The transect reflected a successional gradient. The seed bank had its highest density around the mean water level for August, which was about 10 cm above the yearly mean water level. It was totally dominated by seeds of Juncus gerardii. The depth distribution was investigated. Only at two of ten sampling points (i.e. around mean water level of August) could a significant peak in the second cm from the top be observed, otherwise the distribution was quite even. A comparison between present vegetation and the seed bank revealed a strong difference.

Seed bank dynamics in a Great Basin salt playa

“…The crucial and controversial question, whether soil seed banks play an important role in population dynamics of halophytic shrub species in saline deserts, has been difficult to resolve because recruitment from the seed bank appeared to be a rare phenomenon. A few studies have been conducted on the seed bank dynamics of desert communities (Coffin & Lauenroth, 1989;Hegazy, 1990;Zaman & Khan, 1992), inland saline habitats (Ungar & Riehl, 1980;Khan & Ungar, 1986;Khan, 1990), and on coastal halophyte communities (Smith & Kadlec, 1983;Jerling, 1984;Aziz & Khan, 1996).…”

“…Persistent seed banks serve as a long term seed storage mechanism that allow seeds to remain in the soil over months or years until favorable conditions for germination occur. Because salt marshes and salt desert habitats may be exposed to unpredictable precipitation patterns in many parts of the world, an adaptation to increased salinity levels has evolved at the germination stage of development that permits seeds to remain dormant during these stressfull periods (Jerling, 1984, Zaman & Khan, 1992Khan, 1993;Ungar & Woodell, 1993;Ungar, 1995;Aziz & Khan, 1996). Vegetation zones of a salt marsh could shift markedly from one year to the next (Badger & Ungar, 1989).…”

Seed survival for three decades under thick tephra

“…These seeds were captured more in the upper layer, but the density did not differ between the two layers, showing that the vertical movements of seeds occurred locally. The seeds of J. effusus were dominant in a seed bank of a former lake in Sweden (Skoglund and Hytteborn, 1990), and their age was estimated at more than 100 years ( Jerling, 1983). The conditions around seeds under tephra may be comparable to the former lake, because of low temperature with high moisture.…”

Ecologische opvolging van plasbermen langs het Kanaal Brussel-Schelde, het Kanaal Charleroi-Brussel en het Kanaal Leuven-Dijle

“…Er bestaan veel toepassingen in de literatuur: voor het detecteren van verschillen in soortendensiteit in graslandgemeenschappen onder verschillende beheervormen (Lörentzen et al, 2008), om verschillen in bodemkenmerken ten gevolge van begrazing te onderzoeken (Muscha & Hild, 2006), om vegetatieveranderingen langs begrazingsgradiënten met een verschillende begrazingsdruk te vergelijken (Hoshino et al, 2009), om wegbermgemeenschappen langs omgevingsgradiënten te beschrijven (Arévalo et al, 2005;Karim & Mallik, 2008), bij zonering van oevers van stilstaande waters en kustecosystemen (Keddy 1984;Steinhardt 2009), voor de beschrijving van successiegradiënten (Jerling, 1983), ter evaluatie van het herstel van oevergemeenschappen (Long et al, 2003).…”