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Effects of disturbance intensity on seasonal dynamics of alpine meadow soil seed banks on the Tibetan Plateau

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Abstract

Background and Aims

Information on soil seed bank processes is crucial for understanding vegetation dynamics. Despite the documented importance of soil seed banks in many ecosystems, their role is not fully understood in some sensitive habitats, such as the alpine meadows of the Tibetan Plateau.

Methods

We studied the seasonal dynamics of the germinable soil seed bank under four disturbance intensities in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau as well as seed size distribution relative to disturbance intensity. Composition of the seed bank was compared with that of the standing vegetation.

Results

Density of buried seeds increased with disturbance intensity, but species richness and species diversity decreased. Seed density and species richness of the seed bank varied seasonally in all layers (0–2, 2–7, 7–12 cm) and the whole (0–12 cm). The species composition of seed bank was not significantly influenced by season. There was no trend in seed size distribution as disturbance increased. Seasonal seed bank turnover rates increased with increase in disturbance. The result of the NMDS showed that species composition of seed bank and vegetation exhibited a fairly uniform pattern in each season.

Conclusions

Although as a whole the species composition of the vegetation and seed bank showed a relatively low degree of similarity in each season, similarity was highest in the most disturbed habitat. There was no alteration in species composition of seed bank regardless of disturbance intensity, but seed density decreased as disturbance increased. Disturbances in alpine plant communities might increase persistence of regeneration niches. Regeneration from the seed bank together with vegetative reproduction contributed to aboveground vegetation in highly disturbed habitats. Clonal species played an important role in regeneration of vegetation in slightly disturbed areas, where there was little contribution of ruderals from soil seed banks.

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Abbreviations

NMDS:

Nonmetric multidimensional scaling

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Prof. Mary A. Leck and Prof. Carol C. Baskin for carefully editing an earlier draft of the manuscript. The study was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40930533 and 41101527), the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (Grant No. 20110211120026), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. lzujbky-2011-41).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Science, Lanzhou University, South Tianshui Road 222, Lanzhou, 730000, Gansu, People’s Republic of China

    Miaojun Ma, Xianhui Zhou & Guozhen Du

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  1. Miaojun Ma
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  2. Xianhui Zhou
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  3. Guozhen Du
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Correspondence to Guozhen Du.

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Responsible Editor: Jeffrey Walck.

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Ma, M., Zhou, X. & Du, G. Effects of disturbance intensity on seasonal dynamics of alpine meadow soil seed banks on the Tibetan Plateau. Plant Soil 369, 283–295 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-012-1560-5

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