Soil seed bank in Keerqin meadow grassland under grazing and harvesting

Abstract

Abstract: This study on the size and composition of seed bank and its relationship with vegetation showed in Keerqin meadow grassland,the density of soil seed bank was 6 158?1 647 grains穖^-2 under grazing and 8 312?2 540 grains穖^-2 under harvesting.Under grazing,the seed bank was mainly composed of some dwarf and short-life annuals.The seeds of the annuals and biennials accounted for 81.66% of the seeds in seed bank.The four species with largest proportion of seed bank were Chloris virgata,Chenopodium glaucum,Digitaria cilliaris and Setaria viridis,and the proportions were 38.55%,15.42%,14.95%,and 9.83%,respectively.The density of perennials in soil seed bank was 1 129?302 grains穖^-2.Under harvesting,the seeds of annuals and biennials accounted for 68.08% of the seed in seed bank,and the proportion of Setaria viridis was 52.7%.In the harvesting meadow grassland,the seed density of perennials was 2 653?811 grains穖^-2.There was no significant correlation between the seed density in soil and the vegetation under grazing,but a significant correlation between the seed density in soil and the species abundance of vegetation under harvesting (r=0.76,P<0.01).The index of Shannon-Wiener and richness of grazing meadow grassland were 2.96 and 2.98,respectively,distinctly smaller than 3.10 and 5.09 of harvesting meadow,which showed that free grazing made the diversity of seed bank decrease easily.

Key words: Keerqin sandy land, Meadow, Grazing, Harvesting, Seed bank

CLC Number:

Q948.1

JIANG Deming, LI Rongping, LIU Zhimin, YAN Qiaoling. Soil seed bank in Keerqin meadow grassland under grazing and harvesting[J]. Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology, 2004, (10): 1860-1864.

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