The pattern of seed banks during secondary succession on poor soils

Abstract

IntroductionIn the second half of the 20th century new technologies introduced in Europe, and withdrawal from conventional techniques of plant and animal production caused a marked decrease in agriculturally used area. Secondary succession was initiated on gradually abandoned fields and pastures, unmown meadows and forests after modified use (theory and prediction -[1], abandoned cattle grazing -[2-6], post-fire succession on abandoned fields [7]). During last two decades many studies were published on the correlation between seed banks and secondary succession in various study sites, e.g. on abandoned fields [8], pastures [9], wet meadows and marshlands [10][11][12], dry and wet grassland [13], heather moorland [14], forest plantations [15], and forest [16,17].The changes observed in species composition and the size of seed banks during succession indicated that their long-term dynamics is not defined by one pattern. According to Bossuyt and Hermy [18] the species composition of the seed bank in the entire succession series is relatively constant. Species coming mainly from earlier succession phases are present in a seed bank all the time, and they form persistent seed banks.Their diaspores remain in the seed bank for a long time after the plants' disappearance from the ground layer, but the soil diaspores' reserve is not replenished by seed fall. The different pattern describes a situation when over time the density of diasporas or number of species decrease in the consecutive stages. The rate of this process depends on the type of initial community (e.g. succession on grasslands - [19], succession on heather moorlands - [20]).However, the increasing pattern of changes in the seed bank during succession has been observed in other studies. Species abundance and diaspore density in seed banks increase over time, while their longevity decreases [11,21,22]. The size and species composition of the seed bank in such a case reflect succession transformations in vegetation. Milberg [23] and Falińska [10] described a fluctuating seed bank pattern. Falińska [10] observed the highest species abundance and seed bank density in the transient stage of successional changes, when seeds of species from the previous phases were still present in the soil, but forest species had already appeared. It is worth mentioning that her observation were conducted over 20 years on the same permanent plots.In 1980 [8] studied species diversity and seed bank density for four fallow lands located on the margin of Białowieża Forest, on poor soils abandoned for 6 to 26 years. Our study continues to some extent work by [8].In this study we revisited the oldest fallow land studied by Symonides after 13 and 24 years. Faliński [24] concerned that the final stage of successional course in that place would be fresh coniferous forest Peucedano-Pinetum. We wanted to determine if soil seed bank of our oldest patches are similar to late successional, stable fresh coniferous forest. Therefore, for soil seed banks comparison we selected the best prese...

A study of soil seed banks across one complete chronosequence of secondary succession in a karst landscape

“…These results conform to the dominant paradigm of “declining seed numbers and diversity and decreasing similarity between seed bank and aboveground vegetation as succession proceeds” ( Thompson, 2000 ). Many results obtained from recent studies also support the pattern of declining seed density and similarity with plant community succession ( Shen et al, 2007 ; Kwiatkowska-Falińska, Jankowska-Blaszczuk & Wódkiewicz, 2011 ; Egawa & Tsuyuzaki, 2013 ; Kiss et al, 2017 ). In the complete chronosequence of secondary succession in the karst landscape, aboveground ephemeral and perennial herbs were dominant in terms of both individual density and species richness at early stages.…”

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

“…It was found that the increase in litter was positively correlated with the total seed bank density, and cryptogam biomass was negatively correlated with the seed bank of weedy species. It was argued by Kwiatkowska‐Falińska et al () that the high cover of cryptogams as an effective seed trap can mitigate the speed or even prevent the arrival of seeds on the soil surface and thus their incorporation into the soil seed bank, which is one likely explanation for the correlation found between cryptogam biomass and the seed bank density of weedy species. For litter it was published in the literature that accumulated litter can also act as a seed trap for grassland species (Donath & Eckstein ; Ruprecht & Szabó ), but can help retain soil humidity and decrease the temperature fluctuations on the soil surface which can have positive effects on the preservation of soil seed banks, especially in dry communities (Eckstein & Donath ).…”