Soil Seed Bank and
Plant Community Composition in the
Xu, L., B. Turnipseed, and M. Hayse
Evaluating soil seed bank is critical for understanding plant community development and successional patterns, and for restoration of disturbed areas and the areas dominated by invasive species. The objectives were to determine the effects of different management practices on the soil seed banks and to compare the similarity between the aboveground and the belowground species composition on the Oak Lake Research Station. Nine pairs of 100 m2 macroplots were established in the areas of native prairie, restored rangeland through prescribed burning and reseeding, and herbicide combined tillage. One macroplot from each pair was randomly selected and burned in May 2005 with the other remaining unburned. Within each macroplot ten 0.25-m2 quadrats were randomly established. Cover by species was estimated for aboveground vegetation in early June and August. Three soil cores were extracted using a bulb planter (5 cm diameter by 7.5 cm depth) in the same quadrats where vegetation samples were conducted for seed bank determination. Our results showed that the non-reseeded areas had smaller seed banks compared to the reseeded areas. The non-reseeded areas lacked native graminoid seeds and were dominated by introduced graminoid seeds. Burning reduced the percent contribution of the introduced graminoids to the seed bank and enhanced native forbs but not native graminoids. There was no difference in seed bank species richness between burned and unburned plots on the reseeded and non-reseeded areas, but there was a significant difference between the reseeded and the non-reseeded areas on the burned plots and unburned plots. This result indicated the reseeding is more effective management to increase the seed banks than burning. Burning may decrease the competitive capability of introduced species and promote the existing native species stands through vegetative reproduction. Our results also demonstrated that species compositions in the established vegetation and the seed bank were striking dissimilar. (Presentation pdf)