Grassland seed bank and community resilience in a changing climate

Abstract

Plant dispersal and persistence strategies play an increasingly important role in the face of changing climate. Evaluating the restoration potential of soil seed banks as an important component of community resilience is crucial for developing effective grassland conservation and restoration strategies under climate change. Soil seed banks can act as a source for vegetation recovery by preserving species and supporting their establishment by assisting persistence and recolonization. In a systematic review of field and experimental seed bank studies, we evaluated the potential of seed banks in buffering climatic extremities and fluctuations. We found 42 papers testing the first‐order (temperature and precipitation changes) and second‐order effects of climate change (flooding and fire) on the seed bank in grasslands. We showed that persistent seed banks can support passive restoration especially in wetlands and habitats where unpredictable and frequent disturbance was typical in the historical timescale. We found that active restoration by seed addition will be most important in less disturbance‐adapted habitats characterized by species with transient seed banks. In such cases, the introduction of native matrix species that can tolerate the predicted climatic change should be prioritized at degraded sites.

Soil seed bank in different vegetation types in the Loess Plateau region and its role in vegetation restoration

“…During spontaneous restoration, viable seeds are considered a prerequisite for natural regeneration processes and spontaneous vegetation succession (Valkó et al 2011; Török et al 2018; Ma et al 2019). Seeds are dispersed from an adjacent community or persist in a site form the soil seed bank, which has a vital role in plant regeneration after disturbances (Bakker et al 1996; Kiss et al 2018). Without artificial seed sowing, the soil seed bank is the only seed resource for plant recolonization.…”

The importance of dispersal and species establishment in vegetation dynamics and resilience

“…So far, most research on propagule banks has focused on describing the seed bank composition (usually seeds, rather than other propagules), density and diversity, and also its similarity to the standing vegetation (Frieswyk and Zedler, 2006; Hopfensperger, 2007; Bossuyt and Honnay, 2008). The role of propagule banks in the temporal dynamics and resilience of vegetation has become an important topic more recently, especially in the light of predicted vegetation change scenarios induced by climate change (Kiss et al, 2018; Perkins et al, 2019).…”

Beyond the species pool: modification of species dispersal, establishment, and assembly by habitat restoration

“…This is especially true, because most of the rare species, and also several characteristic matrix species generally lack persistent seed banks in these communities (Kiss et al ; Klaus et al ; Godefroid et al ; Török et al ). In wetlands, heathlands, and habitats with frequent and unpredictable disturbances, regeneration from the seed bank is more important and thus persistent seed banks can support the spontaneous recovery of these habitats better than in grasslands or forests (Bossuyt & Honnay , Kiss et al ). In general, the role of seed banks in recovery decreases with increasing community stability.…”

“…But also in ancient grassland habitats regularly disturbed by fire, such as old‐growth campo rupestre grasslands, the seed bank was found to be insufficient for community recovery after severe anthropogenic disturbance (Le Stradic et al ). Obviously the bud bank is more important in regularly burnt old‐growth grasslands than the seed bank (Fidelis et al ; Pausas et al ) and resprouting seems to be the major way of plant regeneration (see also Kiss et al ).…”

“…Török et al () evaluated the success of spontaneous recovery of sandy old‐fields in a chronosequence study and showed that the development of seed banks is also a proper indicator of restoration success. The seed bank informs us about community resilience, which is especially important faced with changing climate as shown by Kiss et al (). This study highlighted that in stable habitats, characterized by predictable and less severe disturbance, such as nonfire‐prone temperate grasslands, climate‐induced changes in disturbance regimes cannot be buffered by soil seed banks in the future.…”