Soil seed reserves in arid grazing lands of central Australia. Part 1: seed bank and vegetation dynamics

Kinloch, Janine; Friedel, Margaret H.

doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2004.03.005

Cited by 78 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Low intensity and frequency of disturbances including fire, grazing, or other means of removing plant biomass are considered essential to maintain species diversity in natural grasslands [1,30,31] and most seedling recruitment arises from a previously dormant soil seed bank after fire [32]. Consistent with this notion, we detected greater floristic diversity in burned or harvested treatments than in the control after 2-3 years of burning or harvesting in wet or dry season.…”

Section: Diversity Of Regenerating Species Is Unaffected By Treatmentsupporting

confidence: 80%

Harvesting as an Alternative to Burning for Managing Spinifex Grasslands in Australia

Gamage

Memmott

Firn

et al. 2014

Advances in Ecology

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Sustainable harvesting of grasslands can buffer large scale wildfires and the harvested biomass can be used for various products. Spinifex (Triodia spp.) grasslands cover ≈30% of the Australian continent and form the dominant vegetation in the driest regions. Harvesting near settlements is being considered as a means to reduce the occurrence and intensity of wildfires and to source biomaterials for sustainable desert living. However, it is unknown if harvesting spinifex grasslands can be done sustainably without loss of biodiversity and ecosystem function. We examined the trajectory of plant regeneration of burned and harvested spinifex grassland, floristic diversity, nutrient concentrations in soil and plants, and seed germination in controlled ex situ conditions. After two to three years of burning or harvesting in dry or wet seasons, species richness, diversity, and concentrations of most nutrients in soil and leaves of regenerating spinifex plants were overall similar in burned and harvested plots. Germination tests showed that 20% of species require fire-related cues to trigger germination, indicating that fire is essential for the regeneration of some species. Further experimentation should evaluate these findings and explore if harvesting and intervention, such as sowing of fire-cued seeds, allow sustainable, localised harvesting of spinifex grasslands.

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Section: Diversity Of Regenerating Species Is Unaffected By Treatmentsupporting

confidence: 80%

Harvesting as an Alternative to Burning for Managing Spinifex Grasslands in Australia

Gamage

Memmott

Firn

et al. 2014

Advances in Ecology

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“…Navie et al [36] found a decrease in soil seed density at very high levels of grazing, and an increase in soil seed density at intermediate levels of grazing in Queensland, Australia. Kinloch and Friedel [24] also reported that the heavy grazing over several decades reduced the soil seed bank, but light grazing had almost no effects on the soil seed bank in Australia. Our results are quite reasonable, because it has been reported that soil seed density and species richness are closely correlated with species composition and seed dispersal of aboveground vegetation [37].…”

Section: Effects Of Disturbance On Soil Seed Bank and Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, it was reported that the soil seed bank was sufficient to restore degraded vegetation in the Hunshandak Sandlands in northern China due to enough seeds in the soil [17], while in northeastern Hungary it was not viable to restore degraded vegetation with only the natural soil seed bank due to the lack of native species [18]. It has been proven that many factors could affect the seed density and species composition, such as seed size and shape [19], historical vegetation [20], microhabitat variation [21], human disturbance [22], season variation [23], and climate changes [24]. Many studies have been conducted in recent years that attempt to understand the effects of human disturbance on the soil seed bank [25,26].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Responses of Soil Seed Bank and Vegetation to the Increasing Intensity of Human Disturbance in a Semi-Arid Region of Northern China

Xiao

Wang

et al. 2017

Sustainability

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Abstract:To provide more insights into the responses of the soil seed bank and vegetation to human disturbance intensity, we selected four land use types, including: native grassland (no human disturbance), abandoned artificial grassland (light human disturbance), artificial grassland (moderate human disturbance), and farmland (severe human disturbance) in a semi-arid climate of northern China. The species composition and density of the soil seed bank were measured, as well as the species composition and amount of vegetation. The native grassland had a significantly higher soil seed density and species richness than the other land use types. Moreover, the common species both in the soil seed bank and vegetation between the native grassland and other land use types gradually decreased as disturbance intensity increased. The abandoned artificial grassland and artificial grassland still had abundant soil seed banks according to their seed density (≥28.2% of the native grassland) and species richness (≥70.0% of the native grassland) to restore the vegetation. Conversely, it was hard to restore the vegetation on the farmland due to its low soil seed density (10.0% of the native grassland) and species richness (40.0% of the native grassland). In conclusion, human disturbance would generate significant negative effects on the soil seed bank in desertified regions in a semi-arid climate; however, the soil seed bank in land use types with light/moderate disturbance are more adapted to vegetation restoration compared with land use types with severe disturbance in a semi-arid region.

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“…The effects of grazing on the structure of soil seed banks involve quantitative and compositional shifts of species and functional groups and changes in the relative importance of species-specific regeneration strategies (Aboling et al, 2008;Kinloch and Friedel, 2005a;Sternberg et al, 2003). These changes have important implications for the long-term sustainability of the rangeland with regard to the maintenance of regeneration capacity of vegetation, recovery potential of valuable fodder species and reversibility of community shifts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, in the long-term, continuous disturbance (e.g. overgrazing) can lead to local extinction of plant species (O'Connor, 1991), and can result in almost irreversible changes in vegetation, whereby a return to previous conditions from the soil seed bank is prevented (Dutoit and Alard, 1995;Kinloch and Friedel, 2005a;Meissner and Facelli, 1999). Therefore, a key factor in sustainable resource management is resting, which might be more important than the way rangelands are utilized (Snyman, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

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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Soil seed reserves in arid grazing lands of central Australia. Part 1: seed bank and vegetation dynamics

Cited by 78 publications

References 24 publications

Harvesting as an Alternative to Burning for Managing Spinifex Grasslands in Australia

Harvesting as an Alternative to Burning for Managing Spinifex Grasslands in Australia

Responses of Soil Seed Bank and Vegetation to the Increasing Intensity of Human Disturbance in a Semi-Arid Region of Northern China

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

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