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Arable weed seed bank of grassland on former arable fields in mountain regions

Folia Geobotanica volume 53, pages 49–61 (2018)Cite this article

Abstract

The changes in agricultural practice during the last century resulted in high-input farming in lowlands and the abandonment of crop fields in marginally profitable mountain regions. In Switzerland abandoned fields were converted into grassland. These fields had a rich historical flora and the few still existing fields still belong to the most species rich. As many arable weeds produce persistent seeds, abandoned fields should have a high potential to promote rare and threatened arable plants if tilled again. To test this hypothesis we collected 21 soil samples down to 20 cm depth in each the centre and the border of 38 abandoned fields. The centre and border samples of each field were each pooled, and afterwards the present seeds washed out. These seeds were then sown in pots and germination monitored in a greenhouse during six months. A total of 119 plant species were identified. Of these, 48 species were typical arable weeds and only one was red listed in Switzerland. The number of arable weeds per former field was lower at higher altitudes. Hence, the surveyed meadows have a small potential to promote threatened arable weeds if tilled again. Likely, some seeds were no longer viable because the fields were not tilled for a too long. If on newly established conservation fields no threatened species grow spontaneously after a few years, the reintroduction of desired plant species should be considered. The source of the seeds should preferably be a nearby species pool.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fornat AG, Universitätsstr. 65, 8006, Zurich, CH, Switzerland

    Nina Richner

  2. Agroscope ISS, Institute for Sustainable Sciences, Zurich, CH, Switzerland

    Thomas Walter

  3. Institute of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Zurich, Zurich, CH, Switzerland

    H. Peter Linder

  4. WSL Swiss Federal Research, Birmensdorf, CH, Switzerland

    Rolf Holderegger

  5. Department of Environmental Systems Sciencs, Universitätsstrasse 16, 8092, Zurich, CH, Switzerland

    Rolf Holderegger

Authors
  1. Nina Richner
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  2. Thomas Walter
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  3. H. Peter Linder
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  4. Rolf Holderegger
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nina Richner.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Table 5 Frequency of species recorded in the historical surveys and germinated from the soil seed bank in 2011
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Appendix 2

Table 6 Frequency and seed longevity according to Landolt et al. (2010) of species re-found at the same location in historical surveys and contemporary soil seed banks
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Richner, N., Walter, T., Peter Linder, H. et al. Arable weed seed bank of grassland on former arable fields in mountain regions. Folia Geobot 53, 49–61 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12224-017-9288-x

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