Soil seed bank composition is important to the recovery of natural and semi-natural areas from disturbance and serves as a safeguard against environmental catastrophe. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) populations have increased dramatically in eastern North America over the past century and can have strong impacts on aboveground vegetation, but their impacts on seed bank dynamics are ...

Historically, seed banks conferred resilience to Laurentian Great Lakes coastal wetlands by providing propagules of many species to replace invasive plants, such as Typha glauca Godr. After flooding, the seed bank could allow recovery of wetland composition and structure as the water levels fall. Using the seedling emergence method to estimate seed density, species and guild richness, and flori...

conservation and restoration of biodiversity is very important for degraded rangeland ecosystems. it is necessary to assess the potential of soil seed bank as a major source of species. in this study, the soil seed bank size and composition were compared between exclosure and grazed areas. this was done in chahar-bagh rangelands in golestan province. soil was sampled in exclosure and grazing fr...

A study was initiated in 2001at four locations in western Canada to investigate an integrated approach to managing wild oat, the region’s worst weed. The study examined the effects of combining semidwarf or tall barley cultivars with normal or twice-normal barley seeding rates in either continuous barley or a barley–canola–barley–field pea–barley rotation. Herbicides were applied at 25, 50, and...

Seed limitation, defined as the failure of seeds to arrive at sites favorable for recruitment, may be a critical force structuring plant communities. When seed limitation is strong, interspecific competition is reduced, and competitive exclusion may be slowed to the extent that diversity can be maintained through speciation and migration. In mature tropical forests, seed limitation may be espec...

To evaluate the efficacy of passive restoration on soil seed bank and vegetation recovery, we measured the species composition and density of the soil seed bank, as well as the species composition, density, coverage, and height of the extant vegetation in sites passively restored for 0, 4, 7, and 12 years (S0, S4, S7, and S12) in a degraded grassland in desert land. Compared with S0, three more...

1. The main aim of this restoration attempt within a nature reserve was to recreate sustainable conditions for wetland species, particularly aquatic plants. 2. In the process of restoration, two phases of activity were distinguished: a pre-restoration phase, during which information on land-use history and past vegetation was collected and used to establish clear restoration goals; and a restor...

Restoration of coastal plain depressions, a biologically significant and threatened wetland type of the southeastern United States, has received little systematic research. Within the context of an experimental project designed to evaluate several restoration approaches, we tested whether successful revegetation can be achieved by passive methods (recruitment from seed banks or seed dispersal) ...

We examined species composition and diversity of vegetation and soil seed bank associated with different microhabitats in Mediterranean semiarid sand dune community, to identify which functional groups or species benefit from trampling, and to provide a basis for management. In this community microhabitats were found to significantly influence species abundance and biomass of dominant functiona...

We examined the ̄oristic signi®cance of soil seed banks in relation to valley, midslope and ridge sites in a 70±90-year old forest in northeastern Connecticut. A-horizon mineral soils were collected to 5 cm depth in the early spring from forest understory sites across the topography. Samples from each of the sites were exposed to full sun within a greenhouse. Records of germination were made at...