The role of seed rain, seed bank, and clonal growth in plant colonization of ancient and restored grasslands

Kapás, Rozália E.; Kimberley, Adam ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0807-9943; Cousins, Sara A.O.. 2024 The role of seed rain, seed bank, and clonal growth in plant colonization of ancient and restored grasslands. Ecology and Evolution, 14 (6), e11611. 12, pp. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.11611

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Abstract/Summary

Understanding the establishment of plant species is important to inform management of restored grasslands and to preserve biodiversity in ancient grasslands. In grassland communities, plant species can establish from seeds arriving via spatial dispersal, from seeds in the soil seed bank or through vegetative spread from nearby source individuals. However, this colonization potential and the likelihood of species establishment can vary in grasslands with different land-use history. We investigated the relative importance of local species recruitment sources, such as dispersal in space and time and species presence in adjacent grasslands, in determining establishment of plant species in eight grasslands with different land-use history (paired ancient grasslands continuously managed as pasture vs. restored grasslands on former forest). At each grassland, we established plots (0.25 m2) to monitor seedling emergence from seed dispersal, seed bank, and recorded clonal growth over two growing periods. We found that the likelihood of species establishment was highest from local seed rain, and that species present in the local species pool were more able to germinate and establish in both type of grasslands. Species from the seed bank and clonal growth contributed to a lesser extent to species establishment, but represented a greater proportion of the recolonization and regeneration of species in ancient grasslands. These results demonstrate that surrounding grasslands serve as a source for colonizing species and that dispersal from the adjacent grasslands is the key process in regeneration and colonization of plants. These results imply that the recovery of grasslands depends heavily upon to links to species source in grasslands, especially in restored grasslands. Therefore, management plans should incorporate rotational livestock grazing and larger networks of grassland in restoration efforts, which will enable to desirable species to establish and persist in grasslands.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.11611
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Soils and Land Use (Science Area 2017-)
ISSN:	2045-7758
Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:	Open Access paper - full text available via Official URL link.
Additional Keywords:	ancient grassland, clonal growth, colonization potential, field experiment, grassland restoration, seed bank, seed dispersal, semi-natural grasslands
NORA Subject Terms:	Ecology and Environment Agriculture and Soil Science
Related URLs:	Dataset
Date made live:	20 Jun 2024 10:51 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/537604

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