Soil Seed Bank and Plant Community Development in Passive Restoration of Degraded Sandy Grasslands

Miao, Renhui; Song, Yucheng; Sun, Zhaolin; Guo, Ming; Zhou, Zhenxing; Liu, Yinzhan

doi:10.3390/su8060581

Cited by 31 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…There is contradictory evidence in the literature concerning the contribution of seed banks to the restoration of dry grasslands. Some authors argue that the soil seed bank can play an important role in the restoration of degraded sites, such as in Estonian calcareous grasslands (Kalamees et al ) or in Chinese sandy grasslands (Miao et al ). Our results showed that dry grassland specialist species already missing from the vegetation communities are no longer present in the soil seed bank.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can we rely on the soil seed bank for restoring xeric sandy calcareous grasslands?

Godefroid

Pajolec

Hechelski

et al. 2017

Restoration Ecology

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In western Europe, xeric sandy calcareous grasslands have been reduced to a few small and isolated fragments, as a result of sand quarrying and abandonment of agro‐pastoral practices leading to tree encroachment. The restoration of dry grasslands usually consists of reopening the land by cutting trees and removing the litter or the topsoil, relying on seed rain and soil seed bank for recolonization. We investigated whether the soil seed bank of degraded sandy grasslands can be a suitable tool in the restoration of typical sandy grassland communities. We examined the soil seed bank and the vegetation composition in a total of 20 plots of extant and recently restored sandy grasslands (Sedo‐Cerastion) in southern Belgium. Seed density ranged from 611 to 38,808 seeds/m2. Dry grassland species accounted for 42% of the soil seed bank in extant grasslands but dropped to 17% for restored sites, which were dominated by species from artificial pioneer habitats. Only a small number of the 122 species recorded in the vegetation germinated from the soil seed bank samples. Most of these were common species with large ecological amplitude (e.g., Arenaria serpyllifolia, Poa annua, and Rumex acetosella), already present in the site. The typical sandy grassland specialists (e.g., Cardaminopsis arenosa, Dianthus deltoides, Helichrysum arenarium, and Petrorhagia prolifera) were missing from the seed bank, except when present in the vegetation. Therefore, a successful restoration of degraded sandy grasslands based on local seed banks is unlikely. Additional management actions, such as active seed sowing of target species, may be necessary.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can we rely on the soil seed bank for restoring xeric sandy calcareous grasslands?

Godefroid

Pajolec

Hechelski

et al. 2017

Restoration Ecology

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“…(ii) The effects of abandonment depend on the grassland type and we expect that, due to their low density and low diversity seed bank, restored loess grasslands are more sensitive to abandonment than restored alkaline grasslands (Tóth & Hüse 2014; Valkó et al 2014). (iii) The effect of abandonment is more pronounced in the vegetation of the restored grasslands than in the seed bank as vegetation dynamics are generally faster than seed bank dynamics (Miao et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation and seed bank dynamics highlight the importance of post-restoration management in sown grasslands

Valkó

Deák

Török

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Sowing grass seeds generally supports the rapid development of a closed perennial vegetation, which makes the method universally suitable for fast and effective landscape-scale restoration of grasslands. However, sustaining the recovered grasslands, and increasing their diversity is a challenging task. Understanding the role of seed bank compositional changes and vegetation dynamics contributes to designating management regimes that support the establishment of target species and suppress weeds. Our aim was to reveal the effect of post-restoration management on the vegetation and seed bank dynamics in grasslands restored in one of the largest European landscape-scale restoration projects. Eight years after restoration we sampled the vegetation and seed bank in a total of 96 plots located in 12 recovered grasslands in the Great Hungarian Plain. In each recovered grassland stand we designated a mown (mown from Year 1 to Year 8) and an abandoned sample site (mown from Year 1 to Year 3 then abandoned from Year 4 to Year 8). Mown and abandoned sites showed divergent vegetation and seed bank development. Abandonment led to the decline of sown grasses and higher cover of weeds, especially in the alkaline grasslands. Our study confirmed that seed bank has a limited contribution to the maintenance of biodiversity in both grassland types. We found that five years of abandonment had a larger effect on the seed bank than on the vegetation. We stress that long-term management is crucial for controlling the emergence of the weeds from their dense seed bank in restored grasslands.Implications for practiceSeed sowing of grass mixtures can be a feasible tool for restoring grasslands at large scales. However, the developed vegetation usually has low biodiversity and a high seed density of weeds is typical in the soil seed bank even several years after the restoration. Therefore, post-restoration management is necessary for suppressing weeds both aboveground and belowground.We recommend to design the long-term management of the sites subjected to grassland restoration already in the planning phase of the restoration projects and ensure that the management plan is ecologically and economically feasible.We recommend to complement the monitoring of vegetation with the analysis of soil seed bank for evaluating restoration success.

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“…Thus, ex-closures are rehabilitation techniques where, degraded land areas are closed off from the interference of human and domestic animals to lessen land degradation of formerly degraded open grazing lands, promoting natural regeneration of plants and replenish biodiversity and restore soil fertility [5][6][7] . In ex-closures practices, it is believed that a degraded ecosystem recovers readily by itself in the absence of stress or disturbance through what is termed as "passive restoration" 8 .…”

Section: Study Of Soil Seed Banks In Ex-closures For Restoration Of Dmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of Soil Seed Banks in Ex-closures for Restoration of Degraded Lands in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia

Mohammed

Argaw

2020

Sci Rep

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Soil seed banks (SSB) can be important components in the process of rehabilitating degraded lands. Thus, this study was aimed to evaluate the role of SSB to the restoration of degraded lands in six, fifteen and twenty-five year’s ex-closures and adjacent degraded open grazing land (DOGL). Totally, 160 samples of SSB from four soil layers (litter, 0–3 cm, 3–6 cm & 6–9 cm), four sites and ten in a composite of 5 (15 × 15 cm) were collected and tested for seed viability through seed extraction and seedling emergence methods. Species richness and diversity showed a significant difference between the SSB of the ex-closures and DOGL (P = 0.0148 and P = 0.0218 respectively). Seed densities also showed significant differences between the vertical layers of the soils in the ex-closures and DOGL (P = 0.0112) and the interaction effect of the land use type and the vertical soil layers (P = 0.0174). Ex-closures and DOGL scored highest seed densities in their litter and bottom layers of the soils respectively. Most of the woody species in the SSB of older ex-closures were represented in the aboveground flora. Thus, this study has verified that SSB has played a vital role in the restoration of woody species in degraded land through ex-closure practices.

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Soil Seed Bank and Plant Community Development in Passive Restoration of Degraded Sandy Grasslands

Cited by 31 publications

References 37 publications

Can we rely on the soil seed bank for restoring xeric sandy calcareous grasslands?

Can we rely on the soil seed bank for restoring xeric sandy calcareous grasslands?

Vegetation and seed bank dynamics highlight the importance of post-restoration management in sown grasslands

Study of Soil Seed Banks in Ex-closures for Restoration of Degraded Lands in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia

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