Seed banks in a degraded desert shrubland: Influence of soil surface condition and harvester ant activity on seed abundance

DeFalco, Lesley A.; Esque, Todd C.; Kane, Jeffrey M.; Nicklas, Melissa B.

doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2009.04.017

Cited by 61 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…The analysis of the soil seed bank indicated that a decrease in the number of seeds in soil of the studied locations might reflect the intensive grazing and degradation on the growth of trees. These results were consistent with the findings of Osem et al, 30 and Defalco et al, 31 who found that surface ) and declined to <1 seed m -2 within disturbed sites, emphasizing that surface disturbances can have a variable effect on the condition of the soil surface in arid lands.…”

Section: Soil Seed Bank Between Locations and Sitessupporting

confidence: 92%

An Evaluation of Stocking and Regeneration Capacity of Naturally Growing Acacia gerrardii (Benth) in Central Regions of Saudi Arabia

Shetta¹,

Alshaharani²,

Nasser³

2016

Biosci., Biotech. Res. Asia

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The present study was carried out in central region of Saudi Arabia. The objective of the study was to evaluate the diversity, stocking and regeneration capacity of the natural growing Acacia gerrardii (Benth) in 5 sites selected from three governments namely; Huraymila', Dhurmah and Dawadmi. The sampling of Acacia species was conducted within circular sample plots. Inside each site, three sample plots were selected to determine the regeneration capacity, tree stocking and productivity. The results indicated that the growth diversity and stand structure of naturally growing Acacia gerrardii in Riyadh region varied with location. Most of the trees in locations occurred as woodlots. Dawadmi recorded the maximum tree stocking and productivity. The regeneration capacity in Huraymila' was higher whereas the least total seedling ha -1 was record at Dawadmi location. Removing trees for various purposes reduced heavily the stocking density of the trees, regeneration capacity and the chlorophyll contents in locations. The stocking density and regeneration in locations were low cause of indiscriminate cutting of trees and intensive grazing. Tree heights were below the average as a result to low stocking density and increased natural spacing between trees. Acacia gerrardii woodlots in this area require immediate intervention and protection to attain sustainability.

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Section: Soil Seed Bank Between Locations and Sitessupporting

confidence: 92%

An Evaluation of Stocking and Regeneration Capacity of Naturally Growing Acacia gerrardii (Benth) in Central Regions of Saudi Arabia

Shetta¹,

Alshaharani²,

Nasser³

2016

Biosci., Biotech. Res. Asia

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“…Harvester ants can have strong direct and indirect effects on regeneration and population densities of plants (Brown and Human, 1997;Mull and MacMahon, 1997;Willott et al, 2000;López-Vila and García-Fayos, 2005;DeFalco et al, 2009;Arnan et al, 2010). Seed removal rates by ants may be influenced by seed size, morphology and chemistry, as well as by seed availability (Brown et al, 1979;Andersen et al, 2000;Willott et al, 2000;Azcárate et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foraging behaviour of harvesting ants determines seed removal and dispersal

et al. 2010

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“…Different factors can slow or stop regeneration establishment in degraded sites such as low soil fertility, soil compaction (Curtis et al 1993;DeFalco et al 2009), lack of seed sources or excessive distance from seed sources (Cubiña and Aide 2001), and depleted soil seed banks (Mukhongo et al 2011). In our case, the soil seed bank density was highest in the C type and lowest in the LDT type.…”

Section: Seed Densitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The less compacted soil of the C type could allow more seeds to be buried. Accordingly, DeFalco et al (2009) compared seed banks between two contrasting anthropogenic surface disturbances (compacted and trenched) and adjacent undisturbed controls, and showed that seed bank density significantly increased with decreasing soil compaction.…”

Section: Seed Densitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-term abandonment of human disturbances in Zagros Oak forest ecosystems: Effects on secondary succession of soil seed bank and aboveground vegetation

Heydari

Pothier²,

Faramarzi

et al. 2014

Biodiversitas

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Heydari M, Pothier D, Faramarzi M, Merzaei J. 2014. Short-term abandonment of human disturbances in Zagros Oak forest ecosystems: Effects on secondary succession of soil seed . Zagros Oak forests in the west of Iran have been degraded by anthropogenic activities during many years and to fight against this degradation, several management strategies have been implemented. The principal objectives this study were to identify the characteristics of the soil seed bank and the aboveground vegetation that were affected by degradation and short-term abandonment of human disturbances and evaluate the potential of the soil seed bank to restore the degraded types after short-term conservation management. For that, we compared three types of Zagros forest ecosystem with different management regimes: (i) Long term disturbed type as LDT (also used and disturbed at the present), (ii) Short-term abandonment of human disturbances as SAD (5 years without human disturbances) and an undisturbed control or C (iii). We selected three replicates or stands per type. In the aboveground vegetation (ABV), 115, 72 and 51 species were recorded in C, SAD and LDT types, respectively, whereas in the soil seed bank (SSB) flora, 33, 19 and 12 plant taxa were observed in C, SAD and LDT types, respectively. The percentage of annuals increased in ABV and decreased in SSB with increasing site degradation with human activities such as animal husbandry in the forest edges. The percentage of perennial and biennial herbs decreased in ABV and increased in SSB with increasing site degradation. The Shannon index of the SSB decreased with increasing site degradation. The average seed density in the SAD type was significantly larger than that of the LDT type. DCA analysis showed that the seed bank flora of SAD and LDT types were relatively similar and differed from that of the C type. This indicates that a full recovery of degraded type in the oak forest ecosystem in the Zagros region cannot be based only on the soil seed bank present at the beginning of the protection period while a more complete recovery may require a longer period of protection.

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Seed banks in a degraded desert shrubland: Influence of soil surface condition and harvester ant activity on seed abundance

Cited by 61 publications

References 67 publications

An Evaluation of Stocking and Regeneration Capacity of Naturally Growing Acacia gerrardii (Benth) in Central Regions of Saudi Arabia

An Evaluation of Stocking and Regeneration Capacity of Naturally Growing Acacia gerrardii (Benth) in Central Regions of Saudi Arabia

Foraging behaviour of harvesting ants determines seed removal and dispersal

Short-term abandonment of human disturbances in Zagros Oak forest ecosystems: Effects on secondary succession of soil seed bank and aboveground vegetation

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