Prediction of plant cover from seed bank analysis in a semi‐arid plant community on gypsum

Olano, José Miguel; Caballero, I.; Loidi, Javier; Escudero, Adrián

doi:10.1111/j.1654-1103.2005.tb02358.x

Cited by 32 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…The similarity of the adjacent communities' seed banks poses significant questions for the future of CSS vegetation at these sites. The annual portion of the seed bank can be a suitable predictor of the annual portion of the aboveground plant community in vegetation types similar to CSS (Henderson et al 1988;Olano et al 2005). Since the soil seed bank is a component of the community's ability to respond to disturbance (Templeton and Levin 1979;Coffin and Lauenroth 1989;Auld and Denham 2006), the similarity between these communities' seed banks indicates that they are likely to have similar responses to disturbances.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Composition of soil seed banks in southern California coastal sage scrub and adjacent exotic grassland

Cox

Allen

2007

Plant Ecol

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Soil seed banks are important to many plant communities and are recognized as an important component of management plans. Understanding seed bank composition and density is especially important when communities have been invaded by exotic species and must be managed to promote desirable species. We examined germinable soil seed banks in southern California coastal sage scrub (CSS) that is heavily invaded by exotic grasses and in adjacent exotic grassland. Soils from both communities had similar seed banks, dominated by high densities of exotic grass and forb species. Up to 4,000 exotic grass seeds and at least 400 exotic forb seeds/m 2 were found in most soils, regardless of aboveground vegetation type. Native forbs averaged 400 seeds/m 2 in grass-dominated areas and about 800 in shrub-dominated soils. Shrub seed density was \1 and \10 seeds/m 2 in grass-and shrub-dominated areas, respectively, indicating that the shrub seed bank is not persistent compared to annuals. We also compared pre-and post-burn soil seed banks from one location that burned in October 2003. Late-season burning in both grass-and CSS-dominated areas disproportionately reduced exotic grass seed densities relative to native seed densities. The similarity of the seed banks in adjacent grass and shrub communities suggests that without intervention, areas currently dominated by CSS may become more similar to grass-dominated areas in terms of aboveground vegetation. In such areas, the first growing season following a wildfire is a window of opportunity for increasing native diversity at a time when density of exotic grass seeds is low.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Composition of soil seed banks in southern California coastal sage scrub and adjacent exotic grassland

Cox

Allen

2007

Plant Ecol

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“…This supports the findings of Caballero et al (2008) in semiarid Mediterranean shrublands, where the temporal relationship in abundance of perennials between seed bank and vegetation was weaker than for annuals, as the local persistence of perennials is mainly based on the plant's longevity. Olano et al (2005) conclude that semiarid seed banks are a good predictor of annual community performance in terms of vegetation composition and cover. This is confirmed by our results.…”

Section: Similarity Between Soil Seed Bank and Standing Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Species, functional groups and community structure in seed banks of the arid Nama Karoo: Grazing impacts and implications for rangeland restoration

Dreber

Oldeland

Rooyen

2011

Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

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Please cite this article in press as: Dreber, N., et al., Species, functional groups and community structure in seed banks of the arid Nama Karoo: Grazing impacts and implications for rangeland restoration. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. (2011) The regeneration potential of grazing-affected Nama Karoo vegetation was evaluated by comparing soil seed banks of different microsites across a fence-line contrast in arid Namibia. Seed banks under low and high grazing pressure reflected the condition of the standing vegetation in terms of composition, community structure and species abundance distributions. However, a close concordance between vegetation and seed bank was restricted to the herbaceous and grassy vegetation within the inter-shrub matrix. The divergence of seed bank communities across the fence-line was low at community level but high at the level of species abundances. Continuous severe grazing increased the abundance of small-seeded, prostrate forbs with round seeds and favored unpalatable, annual grasses over palatable, perennial grasses. Microsites provided a source of small-scale variation in seed bank community composition and were dissimilar between the rangelands.Results indicated an advanced divergence in the vegetation at the degraded site with seed banks of species common under sustainable grazing being drastically reduced. Their low abundance, even in safe sites, suggests that long-distance dispersal is one of the main limiting factors for natural re-establishment after disturbance. The inertia in recovery of Namibian degraded rangelands through seed limitation can be overcome only by active species introduction.

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“…The ecology of gypsum plant communities has been much studied recently (e.g., Meyer 1986;Guerrero-Campo et al 1999a, b;Escudero et al 1999Escudero et al , 2000Palacio et al 2007;Pueyo and Alados 2007), including their seed banks at small spatial and temporal scales (see Escudero et al 1997;Caballero et al 2003Caballero et al , 2005Caballero et al , 2008Olano et al 2005) and aboveground succession both primary (Mota et al 2003;Dana and Mota 2006) and secondary (Martinez-Duro et al 2010). However, many aspects of gypsophile community dynamics and the relationship between aboveground vegetation and seed bank composition during succession remain unknown.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Does aboveground vegetation composition resemble soil seed bank during succession in specialized vegetation on gypsum soil?

Martínez-Duro

Luzuriaga

Ferrandis

et al. 2011

Ecological Research

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This paper evaluates the aboveground vegetation in relation to the soil seed bank throughout a 60-year succession process following agricultural abandonment in a semi-arid Mediterranean gypsum habitat. There is little information regarding the relationship between these two community components in the context of succession on semi-arid gypsum soils. Aboveground vegetation and the corresponding seed bank of gypsum plant communities were sampled through a chronosequence of 24 abandoned fields. Generalized linear models were used to model seed species richness and density, redundancy analyses to model the effect of time since abandonment and the effect of soil physicochemical parameters on seed bank species composition, and Mantel tests to analyze resemblance between aboveand belowground species composition. In this last case, the effect of time since abandonment was controlled using a partial Mantel test. Mantel correlograms using time intervals instead of distances were used to describe the resemblance of above-to belowground species occurrence in different aged fields. No significant variability in seed species richness, seed density, or species composition due to time since abandonment was found. Differences in seed species composition were mainly due to small spatial scale predictors such as slope and soil calcium content. High correlations between species composition in the soil seed bank and the aboveground vegetation were detected during succession. The lack of a significant trend in aboveground species replacement over time was also reflected in seed bank composition. We concluded that the rapid establishment of strict gypsophyte species relied mainly on the long-term persistence of these species in the seed bank.

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Prediction of plant cover from seed bank analysis in a semi‐arid plant community on gypsum

Cited by 32 publications

References 55 publications

Composition of soil seed banks in southern California coastal sage scrub and adjacent exotic grassland

Composition of soil seed banks in southern California coastal sage scrub and adjacent exotic grassland

Species, functional groups and community structure in seed banks of the arid Nama Karoo: Grazing impacts and implications for rangeland restoration

Does aboveground vegetation composition resemble soil seed bank during succession in specialized vegetation on gypsum soil?

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