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Impact of ploughing on soil seed bank dynamics in temporary pools

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Abstract

We examined the impact of ploughing on soil seed banks of plant communities living in temporary marshes located in agricultural fields. The quantity, quality and vertical distribution of seeds were quantified under ploughed or unploughed treatment at community level. We also focussed on a typical semi-aquatic species, Damasonium alisma, to investigate the impact of ploughing at population level. We used two complementary techniques to study seed banks: hand sorting and seedling emergence. We found that species richness of seeds, seed abundance and germination ability were strongly affected by ploughing at community level. Concerning D. alisma, most of the seeds (56%) were stored in the two deepest soil layers among the four considered in ploughed pools. Moreover, the germination rate was higher for buried seeds (84%) than for seeds collected at the surface (33.6%). These patterns were almost inverted in unploughed pools. Our results agree with the temporal storage effect generally suggested to describe the seed bank property of plant communities. But in addition, we showed that ploughing induces a spatial storage effect in accumulating species and individuals in the seed banks that favourably influence community dynamics. We conclude that, in contrast to what is usually thought, ploughing disturbance can be of benefit for such ephemeral wetland vegetation.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Gerard Arnal for floristic inventories, Beatriz Decencière for providing data and assistance in the field and Dominique Debray and Gregoire Devictor for manuscript improvement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR 5173 CNRS MNHN Conservation des Espèces, Restauration et Suivi des Populations, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, 61 Rue Buffon, 75005, Paris, France

    Vincent Devictor & Nathalie Machon

  2. UMS 2699 Inventaire et Suivi de la Biodiversité, Conservatoire botanique National du Bassin parisien, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, 55 Rue Buffon, 75005, Paris, France

    Vincent Devictor, Jacques Moret & Nathalie Machon

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  1. Vincent Devictor
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  2. Jacques Moret
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  3. Nathalie Machon
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Correspondence to Vincent Devictor.

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Devictor, V., Moret, J. & Machon, N. Impact of ploughing on soil seed bank dynamics in temporary pools. Plant Ecol 192, 45–53 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-006-9225-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-006-9225-1

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