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Soil seed banks in a mature coniferous forest landscape: dominance of native perennials and low spatial variability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2012

Scott R. Abella  and
Judith D. Springer
Scott R. Abella*
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-3064, USA
Judith D. Springer
Affiliation:
Ecological Restoration Institute, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011-5017, USA
*
*Correspondence Email: scott.abella@unlv.edu
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Abstract

Soil seed banks are important to vegetation recruitment, ecosystem functioning and land management. We evaluated composition of 0–5 cm soil seed banks and relationships of seed banks with forest community types (ranging from low-elevation pinyon–juniper to high-elevation bristlecone pine), vegetation cover and environmental variables within a 40,000-ha relatively undisturbed coniferous forest landscape in Nevada, USA. We collected samples from 36 sites and used the emergence method to assay seed banks. Seed density averaged 479 seeds m− 2 across sites and a total of 39 taxa were detected. Most (79%) of these taxa were perennials and 35 of 39 (90%) were native. Moreover, 62% of seed-bank taxa were in the vegetation of mature forests, an uncommon finding in studies of forest soil seed banks. Seed-bank density, species richness and composition did not display strong relationships with forest community types, vegetation cover or environmental variables. Weak relationships likely arose from the relatively uniform seed-bank density among sites, where 50% of sites had seed densities in the range of 106–282 m− 2. Results suggest that while seed banks on this landscape are not large, they provide recruitment potential for some native perennial species of mature, relatively undisturbed communities.

Keywords

elevationenvironmental gradientMojave DesertSpring Mountainstexture
Type
Research Papers
Information
Seed Science Research , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , September 2012 , pp. 207 - 217
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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