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Seed Bank Variation Along a Water Depth Gradient in a Subtropical Lakeshore Marsh, Longgan Lake, China

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Abstract

Although zonation patterns of the standing vegetation along a water depth gradient in wetlands have been well described, few studies have explored whether such patterns also occur in the seed bank. This study examined patterns of the seed bank along a water depth gradient in three vegetation types (submerged zone, floating-leaved zone, and emergent zone) of a subtropical lakeshore marsh, Longgan Lake, China. Submerged zone is the deepest water and never exposed its soil to air, and was dominant by submerged species; floating-leaved zone is waterlogged soil even during drawdown and was dominant by Nelumbo nucifera; emergent zone is rarely exceeded 1 m water depth during the wet season (summer and autumn), and the marsh soil was usually exposed to air during drawdown (winter and spring), and is dominant by Zizania latifolia, Polygonum hydropiper and Scirpus yagara. It was found that many species were ubiquitous in the seed bank. Frequency of distribution and densities of the dominant species, however, varied significantly from zone to zone. A total of 22 species was recorded in submerged zone, 20 in floating-leaved zone, and 29 in emergent zone. Germinated seedling density was 1,580, 8,994 and 20,424 seedlings m−2 in submerged zone, floating-leaved zone, and emergent zone, respectively. Submerged and floating-leaved species were significantly abundant in the submerged zone, while the emergent species were found predominantly in the emergent zone. A fern species, Ceratopsis pterioides, was the most abundant seedling in seed banks from all three zones. A TWINSPAN dendrogram and CCA ordination diagram clearly showed separation of species among sites with the emergent zone being well separated from the submerged zone and floating-leaved zone, thus revealing marked zonal patterns in species distributions in the seed bank. This pattern of zonation reflected the pattern in the standing vegetation.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Y.P. Liu, J.W. Xu, W.Z. Liu, X.S. Ke and W.Y. Wu for field assistance; T.Y. Li and Y. Cheng for species identification, two anonymous reviewers for their helpful criticism at this manuscript. Financial support was provided by the Innovation Key Project of CAS (KZCX1-SW-12, KSCX2-1-10) and The State Key Basic Research and Development Plan of China (2002CB412300).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Aquatic Plant Biology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Long-Yi Yuan, Gui-Hua Liu, Wei Li & En-Hua Li

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  1. Long-Yi Yuan
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  2. Gui-Hua Liu
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  3. Wei Li
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  4. En-Hua Li
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Correspondence to Wei Li.

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

Table 1 Life form, reproduction mode and species occurrence in standing vegetation (V) and seed bank germinated under the moist (GM) and inundation (GI) in three sampling zones. Species present are represented by the symbol +
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Yuan, LY., Liu, GH., Li, W. et al. Seed Bank Variation Along a Water Depth Gradient in a Subtropical Lakeshore Marsh, Longgan Lake, China. Plant Ecol 189, 127–137 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-006-9170-z

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