Seed banking in ancient forest species: why total sampled area really matters

Plue, Jan; Thompson, Ken; Verheyen, Kris; Hermy, Martin

doi:10.1017/s0960258511000481

Cited by 16 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 43 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In contrast, little was gained by including information on sampling depth or volume (this variable were not retained in the final model). This seemingly counterintuitive finding relates to the strong vertical stratification in seed banks; seed densities and diversities typically decrease rapidly with depth (Ma et al ) – a practical implication of this is that seed bank studies should consider maximising sampling area at the expense of depth (see also Plue et al ). An exception would be cases where depth is explicitly in focus, such as in successional systems where deeper seedbanks may reflect ‘memories of communities past’ (Milberg , Pywell et al , Ma et al ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seed banks are biodiversity reservoirs: species–area relationships above versus below ground

Vandvik

Klanderud

Meineri

et al. 2015

Oikos

102

114

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Soil seed banks offer plants the possibility to disperse through time. This has implications for population and community dynamics, as recognised by ecological and evolutionary theory. In contrast, the conservation and restoration literature often find seed banks to be depauperate, weedy and without much conservation value or restoration potential. One explanation for these contrasting views might lie in a systematic bias in the sampling of seed banks versus established plant communities. We use the species-area relationship as a tool to assess and compare the per-area species richness and spatial structuring of the diversity of the established plant community versus soil seed banks. To allow this direct comparison we extensively survey the species-area relationship of the vegetation and underlying seed bank of a grassland community across twelve sites spanning regional bioclimatic gradients. We also compile a global dataset of established vegetation and seed banks from published sources. We find that seed banks have consistently higher intercepts and slopes of the relationship, and hence higher diversity at any given spatial scale, than the vegetation both in the field and literature study. This is consistent across habitat types, climate gradients, and biomes. Similarity indices are commonly used to compare vegetation and seed bank, and we find that sampling effort (% of the vegetation area sampled for seed bank) was the strongest predictor of vegetation-seed bank similarity for both the Sørensen (R 2  0.70) and the Raup-Crick (R 2  0.25) index. Our study suggests that the perception that seed banks are intrinsically less diverse than established plant communities has been based more on inadequate sampling than on biological reality. Across a range of ecosystems and climatic settings, we find high diversity in seed banks relative to the established community, suggesting potentially important roles of seed banks in population dynamics and diversity maintenance.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seed banks are biodiversity reservoirs: species–area relationships above versus below ground

Vandvik

Klanderud

Meineri

et al. 2015

Oikos

102

114

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…,b), while banking few seeds (Plue et al. ), having a limited effect on diversity partitioning. These different life‐history strategies between dominant herb layer and seed bank species explain the diversity partitioning pattern, which appears governed by species transitions from the seed bank in or out of the herb layer as a function of light availability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Where does the community start, and where does it end? Including the seed bank to reassess forest herb layer responses to the environment

Plue

Frenne

Acharya

et al. 2017

J Vegetation Science

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Question Below‐ground processes are key determinants of above‐ground plant population and community dynamics. Still, our understanding of how environmental drivers shape plant communities is mostly based on above‐ground diversity patterns, bypassing below‐ground plant diversity stored in seed banks. As seed banks may shape above‐ground plant communities, we question whether concurrently analysing the above‐ and below‐ground species assemblages may potentially enhance our understanding of community responses to environmental variation. Location Temperate deciduous forests along a 2000 km latitudinal gradient in NW Europe. Methods Herb layer, seed bank and local environmental data including soil pH, canopy cover, forest cover continuity and time since last canopy disturbance were collected in 129 temperate deciduous forest plots. We quantified herb layer and seed bank diversity per plot and evaluated how environmental variation structured community diversity in the herb layer, seed bank and the combined herb layer–seed bank community. Results Seed banks consistently held more plant species than the herb layer. How local plot diversity was partitioned across the herb layer and seed bank was mediated by environmental variation in drivers serving as proxies of light availability. The herb layer and seed bank contained an ever smaller and ever larger share of local diversity, respectively, as both canopy cover and time since last canopy disturbance decreased. Species richness and β‐diversity of the combined herb layer–seed bank community responded distinctly differently compared to the separate assemblages in response to environmental variation in, e.g. forest cover continuity and canopy cover. Conclusions The seed bank is a below‐ground diversity reservoir of the herbaceous forest community, which interacts with the herb layer, although constrained by environmental variation in e.g. light availability. The herb layer and seed bank co‐exist as a single community by means of the so‐called storage effect, resulting in distinct responses to environmental variation not necessarily recorded in the individual herb layer or seed bank assemblages. Thus, concurrently analysing above‐ and below‐ground diversity will improve our ecological understanding of how understorey plant communities respond to environmental variation.

show abstract

“…Even the SLI, which we specifically selected for, did not prove consistently similar between species sets: G. urbanum (SLI = 0.05) and M. effusum (SLI = 0.53) versus P. nemoralis (SLI = 0.39) and S. sylvatica (SLI = 0.31). As the SLI has been critiqued for its unreliability (Saatkamp et al ., ; Plue et al ., ), we adapted the seed accumulation index (SAI, Hölzel & Otte, ) to re‐evaluate longevity in our four species. Using all plots from the full 153 plot dataset where a species occurred, we calculated the SAI as the ratio of all plots where a species was solely present in the seed bank over all plots where the species was present in the seed bank, vegetation or both.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The importance of seed banking in forest herbs is generally dismissed. However, multiple independent studies have demonstrated seed banking to be more common than hitherto thought (Warr et al ., ; HilleRisLambers et al ., ; Kaeser & Kirkman, ; Plue et al ., ). Despite low seed bank density, low seed survival rates and short‐term persistence (Kaeser & Kirkman, ), seed banks still substantially enhance seedling recruitment in any given year (HilleRisLambers et al ., ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Climatic control of forest herb seed banks along a latitudinal gradient

Plue

Frenne

Acharya

et al. 2013

Global Ecology and Biogeography

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Aim: Seed banks are central to the regeneration strategy of many plant species. Any factor altering seed bank density thus affects plant regeneration and population dynamics. Although seed banks are dynamic entities controlled by multiple environmental drivers, climatic factors are the most comprehensive, but still poorly understood. This study investigates how climatic variation structures seed production and resulting seed bank patterns. Location: Temperate forests along a 1900km latitudinal gradient in north-western (NW) Europe. Methods: Seed production and seed bank density were quantified in 153 plots along the gradient for four forest herbs with different seed longevity: Geum urbanum, Milium effusum, Poa nemoralis and Stachys sylvatica. We tested the importance of climatic and local environmental factors in shaping seed production and seed bank density. Results: Seed production was determined by population size, and not by climatic factors. G.urbanum and M.effusum seed bank density declined with decreasing temperature (growing degree days) and/or increasing temperature range (maximum-minimum temperature). P.nemoralis and S.sylvatica seed bank density were limited by population size and not by climatic variables. Seed bank density was also influenced by other, local environmental factors such as soil pH or light availability. Different seed bank patterns emerged due to differential seed longevities. Species with long-lived seeds maintained constant seed bank densities by counteracting the reduced chance of regular years with high seed production at colder northern latitudes. Main conclusions: Seed bank patterns show clear interspecific variation in response to climate across the distribution range. Not all seed banking species may be as well equipped to buffer climate change via their seed bank, notably in short-term persistent species. Since the buffering capacity of seed banks is key to species persistence, these results provide crucial information to advance climatic change predictions on range shifts, community and biodiversity responses

show abstract

Seed banking in ancient forest species: why total sampled area really matters

Cited by 16 publications

References 43 publications

Seed banks are biodiversity reservoirs: species–area relationships above versus below ground

Seed banks are biodiversity reservoirs: species–area relationships above versus below ground

Where does the community start, and where does it end? Including the seed bank to reassess forest herb layer responses to the environment

Climatic control of forest herb seed banks along a latitudinal gradient

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About