Abstract
The soil seed bank could be viewed as an optimisation of the chances of plants to meet favourable conditions in time and space. Owing to the large number of publications and the field’s complexity, available reviews do not cover the entire field. My objective was to produce a synthesis. Determination of the soil seed bank needs careful planning of sampling because of variations in soil depth and clumped distributions. Sample composition is determined from plantlets coming from germinated seeds after exposure to appropriate conditions or directly from seeds after their separation from soil particles. Seed longevity varies from months to decades and depends on desiccation resistance, defences against predators and germination control, notably dormancy. Dormancy characterization and alleviation factors allow to understand species’ strategies in ecosystems. In agricultural soils, weeds challenge future cultures. Research objectives are often to exhaust their seed banks before crop emergence by reducing seed production, inactivating germination, removing weeds before seed maturation, and controlling the harvest. In natural ecosystems, climax species tend to produce shorter-lived seeds compared to pioneered ones. The soil seed bank may help in restoring degraded vegetation but the similarity with the aboveground vegetation is low. Disturbances may increase or decrease the soil seed bank diversity. Restoration may often rely on natural recruitment from undisturbed areas or on artificial translocation. I emphasise the need to integrate soil seed bank knowledge into dynamic vegetation models, which generally lacks most of the soil seed bank features, while the future distribution of the plant species is one of the main questions in this climate change era.
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Claims 7
Claim · model-written summary
Seed longevity in plants ranges from months to decades.
- Taxon
- plantsViridiplantaee0
- Outcome
- Seed longevitye1
- Value
- months to decadese1
- Qualifier
- depends on desiccation resistance, defences against predators and germination control, notably dormancye1
Verbatim
e0“the chances of plants to meet favourable conditions in time and space”
e1“Seed longevity varies from months to decades and depends on desiccation resistance, defences against predators and germination control, notably dormancy”
Claim · model-written summary
In agricultural soils, weeds challenge future crops.
Verbatim
e2“In agricultural soils, weeds challenge future cultures”
Claim · model-written summary
In natural ecosystems, climax species tend to produce shorter-lived seeds than pioneer species.
Verbatim
e3“In natural ecosystems, climax species tend to produce shorter-lived seeds compared to pioneered ones”
Claim · model-written summary
The similarity between the soil seed bank and the aboveground vegetation is low.
- Taxon
- plantsViridiplantaee0
- Outcome
- similarity with the aboveground vegetatione4
Verbatim
e0“the chances of plants to meet favourable conditions in time and space”
e4“The soil seed bank may help in restoring degraded vegetation but the similarity with the aboveground vegetation is low”
Claim · model-written summary
The soil seed bank may help restore degraded vegetation.
- Taxon
- plantsViridiplantaee0
- Outcome
- restoring degraded vegetatione4
Verbatim
e0“the chances of plants to meet favourable conditions in time and space”
e4“The soil seed bank may help in restoring degraded vegetation but the similarity with the aboveground vegetation is low”
Claim · model-written summary
Disturbances may increase or decrease soil seed bank diversity.
- Taxon
- plantsViridiplantaee0
- Treatment
- Disturbancese5
- Outcome
- soil seed bank diversitye5
- Direction
- increase or decreasee5
Verbatim
e0“the chances of plants to meet favourable conditions in time and space”
e5“Disturbances may increase or decrease the soil seed bank diversity”
Claim · model-written summary
The soil seed bank should be integrated into dynamic vegetation models.
- Taxon
- plantsViridiplantaee0
- Outcome
- integrate soil seed bank knowledge into dynamic vegetation modelse6
Verbatim
e0“the chances of plants to meet favourable conditions in time and space”
e6“I emphasise the need to integrate soil seed bank knowledge into dynamic vegetation models”