Seed Banks at Six Open and Afforested Heathland Sites in Southern Sweden

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. SUMMARY(1) Germinable seed banks in the soil were determined for six sites in southern Sweden: a grazed heathland, four first generation Picea abies plantations aged 30-73 years and one recently clear-felled area previously covered with an 85-year-old first generation P. abies plantation.(2) On the open heathland site, the top 6 cm of soil was estimated to contain twenty-two species with a total of 45 200 (S.E. 4200) seeds m-2, 88% being of Calluna vulgarism(3) The depth distributions of the predominant species down to 9 cm in the mineral soil varied greatly, although all species occurred through the whole sampled section, suggesting that many seeds were probably not recently deposited.(4) The four P. abies plantations had fairly similar soil seed floras. Twenty-four species were found, of which fifteen had probably been stored in the soil since before afforestation. Most seeds were of Calluna vulgaris (up to 26 600 (S.E. 2000) seeds m-2 down to 6 cm in the mineral soil for the different sites), Carexpilulifera (up to 2400 (S.E. 410) seeds m-2) and Juncus spp. (up to 780 (S.E. 250) seeds m-2). There was no trend in seed densities with stand age.(5) On the clear-felled area, dense stands of C. vulgaris and C. pilulifera were present, but only in scarified patches of soil, showing that the seeds of certain heathland species may survive an entire forest rotation in the soil in numbers sufficient to be important for the revegetation after felling if the humus layer is disturbed. * Nomenclature for vascular plants follows Tutin et al. (1964-80).

Heathland Seedbanks under BrackenPteridium aquilinum(L.) Kuhn and their Importance for Re-vegetation after Bracken Control

“…This is in agreement with other studies which have shown that the seedbank of this species is highly persistent: >30 years under coniferous plantations (Hill and Stevens, 1981) and >73 years under Picea abies (Granströ m, 1988). High densities present in mineral soil under bracken deep in the stand at Ramsley Moor are in keeping with the relatively rapid invasion by bracken which this site has experienced.…”

Conservation of Heathland Ground Beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae): The Value of Lowland Coniferous Plantations

“…It supports distinctive plant and faunal assemblages of international importance including numerous specialised invertebrates (Webb 1989;Stubbs and Fry 1991;Desender and Bosmans 1998;Gajdos and Toft 2000;Goulson et al 2005). Along with agricultural conversion, afforestation has been a major cause of heathland loss in Europe (Noirfalise and Vanesse 1976;Granstro¨m 1988;Farrell 1993). Habitat re-creation initiatives have included removing areas of coniferous forestry planted over heathland (e.g.…”

Soil seed banks of pioneer tree species in European temperate forests: a review

“…Various authors mentioned that birch seeds are mostly found in the humus or uppermost soil layers (Hill 1979, Granström 1988, Houle 1998, Sullivan & Ellison 2006. Houle (1998) concluded that less than 2 % of birch seed rain reaches the persistent seed bank.…”

“…2). However, viable willow and poplar seeds were only derived from samples collected in March and April (Staaf et al 1987, Granström 1988, Bakker et al 1996a, Falinska 1999, Bekker et al 2000, Berger et al 2004, Dölle & Schmidt 2009). Samples taken near willow and European aspen seed trees in May and June contained no viable seeds of either genus (Falinska 1999, Decocq et al 2004 due to a rapid loss of germination ability after deposition on soil (Barsoum 2002).…”