The effect of soil pH on persistence of seeds of grassland species in soil

Basto, Sofía; Thompson, Ken; Rees, Mark

doi:10.1007/s11258-015-0499-z

Cited by 42 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Previous studies revealed higher pH and BD in the grazing soil than in the no-grazing one in desert steppe (Deng et al 2014a), hill landscape (Deng et al 2014b), degraded sandy grassland (Su et al 2005), and alpine meadow (Ma et al 2015;Wu et al 2010). Soil pH is one of the main factors determining grassland plant community composition and is mainly determined by parent material and organic and inorganic matter content (Basto et al 2015). The variation in pH in this study is probably related to vegetation coverage, variations of root systems, and organic matter content (Su et al 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Soil properties and species composition under different grazing intensity in an alpine meadow on the eastern Tibetan Plateau, China

Yang

Xiong

et al. 2016

Environ Monit Assess

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As the main form of land use and human disturbance of grassland, livestock grazing has great influences on the soil resources and plant communities. This study observed the variation of soil properties and community characteristics of four treatments of different grazing intensity (no grazing, UG; light grazing, LG; moderate grazing, MG; and heavy grazing, HG) in an alpine meadow of Sichuan Province on the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. The results showed that grazing increased the pH, soil bulk density (BD), and contents of total carbon (TC) and total nitrogen (TN), and the BD increased while the others decreased with the grazing intensity. At the community level, with the increase of the grazing intensity, the vegetation coverage (R 2 = 0.61, P < 0.001), mean height of community (R 2 = 0.37, P < 0.001), aboveground biomass (R 2 = 0.54, P < 0.001), litter biomass (R 2 = 0.84, P < 0.001), and percentage of aboveground biomass of palatable grasses to total biomass (R 2 = 0.74, P < 0.001) significantly decreased, while the belowground biomass (R 2 = 0.72, P < 0.001) and the root/shoot (R/S) ratio (R 2 = 0.65, P < 0.001) increased. The species richness was the greatest at LG and the total biomass at UG. With grazing, the dominant species of the plant community shifted from palatable grasses (Gramineae and Cyperaceae) to unpalatable grasses (Compositae and Ranunculaceae). Based on the results, LG may be the optimal grassland management mode to be used in the long time in the alpine meadow of the Tibetan Plateau.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Soil properties and species composition under different grazing intensity in an alpine meadow on the eastern Tibetan Plateau, China

Yang

Xiong

et al. 2016

Environ Monit Assess

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“…52 For instance, nitrogen (N) uptake is smaller in some species growing in dry soils, 53 which may then accumulate in the soil, with possible effects on the grassland seed bank 54 and soil pH, 55 which in turn may have consequences for the persistence of seeds in grasslands soils. 56 Previous studies at our experimental site showed that, comparing control and drought treatments, the mean plant N supply (the sum of plant-available nitrate and ammonium) was doubled after drought. 26 Sometimes, the response of the soil seed bank to climate variables may simply reflect the responses of the vegetation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 76%

Severe effects of long-term drought on calcareous grassland seed banks

et al. 2018

Self Cite

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Climate change models project shifts in precipitation patterns at regional and global scales. Increases in dry areas and the occurrence of drought predicted in future scenarios are likely to threaten grassland ecosystems. Calcareous grassland seed banks have proven to be resistant to short-term drought, but their responses to long-term drought are unknown. Here we show that 14 years of summer drought changed calcareous grassland seed bank composition, reducing its size and richness, and that these responses do not simply reflect patterns in the above-ground vegetation. Moreover, the effect of drought was larger on seed banks than on vegetation, and above-ground responses mediated by soil depth were less evident in the seed bank than in the vegetation. These results demonstrate that the severity of drought effects on calcareous grasslands is larger than previously thought, and show that this ecosystem is highly vulnerable and has low resilience to predicted decreases in soil moisture.

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“…The most likely explanation could be that the climate of the study site is more continental with lower precipitation than in the acidic sand grassland region; and it was also proven that higher humidity supports the build‐up of persistent seed banks (Bossuyt & Honnay ). It is also possible that the detected differences are caused by the differences in the presence of seed pathogens in calcareous and acidic soils found by Basto et al (). They found that the abundance of seed pathogens is higher in calcareous soils, which can cause a lower soil seed bank density.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Succession in soil seed banks and its implications for restoration of calcareous sand grasslands

Török¹,

Kelemen²,

Valkó³

et al. 2017

Restoration Ecology

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Spontaneous succession is increasingly involved in grassland restoration, because it offers a cost‐effective solution compared to technical reclamation methods. This topic is especially important nowadays, as large areas of marginal croplands are being abandoned on poor soils of Central and Eastern Europe, which offers a possibility for the spontaneous recovery of typical target grasslands. Studying the vegetation composition, aboveground biomass, and seed bank in old fields of different age and target calcareous sand grasslands using the chronosequence method, we aimed to answer the following questions: (1) Which species contribute to the seed banks of old fields and reference grasslands? (2) Does the direction of vegetation and seed bank succession trend toward the reference grasslands? (3) How are the vegetation changes in spontaneous succession reflected by the soil seed banks of old fields? In reference grasslands on the dune tops only sporadic seed banks were detected, while several hygrophytes had dense seed banks in reference grasslands in dune slacks. Similarity between the species composition of vegetation and seed banks was low. The development of vegetation and seed banks in old fields progressed toward that of target grasslands and the proportion of weedy species (e.g. indigenous weeds and invasive species) also decreased with time. The cryptogam biomass correlated significantly negatively, while the soil phosphorus significantly positively with the weedy species seed bank density. Our results indicated that the role of persistent seed banks in the regeneration of calcareous sand grasslands from old fields is rather limited and promising vegetation changes are mostly driven by spatial dispersal.

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The effect of soil pH on persistence of seeds of grassland species in soil

Cited by 42 publications

References 64 publications

Soil properties and species composition under different grazing intensity in an alpine meadow on the eastern Tibetan Plateau, China

Soil properties and species composition under different grazing intensity in an alpine meadow on the eastern Tibetan Plateau, China

Severe effects of long-term drought on calcareous grassland seed banks

Succession in soil seed banks and its implications for restoration of calcareous sand grasslands

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