The Soil Seed Bank and Its Importance in Burnt Zones Recuperation Strategies

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Hazards and Risk Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 November 2022) | Viewed by 4640

Special Issue Editor

Department of Biodiversity and Environmental Management, School of Agricultural and Forestry Engineering, Universidad de León, Leon, Spain
Interests: fire ecology; seed bank; seed ecology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Wildfires of great dimension are increasingly frequent, and their ecological effects are more and more severe, to the extent that they can be considered change agents of forest systems. The main flora communities that suffer these fires include species with a great capacity of resilience and regenerative strategies, such as sprouting and germination, and that are very adapted to fire frequencies. Species with these strategies are capable of producing a large amount of seeds and forming seedbanks in the soil that respond in an efficient way to fire, although obligate seeders do this to a larger extent. The germination of these seeds stored in the soil can be stimulated directly by temperature during the fire or by the chemical products derived from combustion, and indirectly by the microenvironmental conditions created after the fire. Understanding the seedbank allows us to predict the system’s capacity to recover after the fire and to design restoration strategies if necessary.

With this Special Issue, we encourage you to contribute to a wider knowledge about soil seedbanks that will allow us to have a better insight into regenerative strategies after these types of disruptions and will help with decision making for conservation and managing of forest communities.

Prof. Dr. Luz Valbuena
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • fire ecology
  • post-fire regeneration
  • seed bank
  • seed germination
  • biodiversity
  • seedlings
  • ecological restoration
  • forest management

Published Papers (3 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

14 pages, 1450 KiB  
Article
The Soil Seed Bank Role in Mountainous Heathland Ecosystems after Fire and Inorganic Nitrogen Fertilization
by Josu G. Alday, Leonor Calvo, José Luis Fernández Rodríguez and Luz Valbuena
Forests 2023, 14(2), 226; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/f14020226 - 25 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1260
Abstract
Calluna vulgaris-dominated heathlands are a priority habitat type in Annex I of the Habitats Directive (92/43/ECC, habitat code 4060). In the Iberian Peninsula, the landscape of the Cantabrian Mountain range has great heterogeneity due to human management during the last 10,000 years. Another [...] Read more.
Calluna vulgaris-dominated heathlands are a priority habitat type in Annex I of the Habitats Directive (92/43/ECC, habitat code 4060). In the Iberian Peninsula, the landscape of the Cantabrian Mountain range has great heterogeneity due to human management during the last 10,000 years. Another factor that can affect these communities is the increase in human-induced atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition. During the last century, there has been a dramatic increase in N deposition rates. For all these reasons, it is important to know the regeneration dynamics of the heathlands in the context of the disturbances that these communities currently face (i.e., N deposition, fire, and decrease in sheep grazing) in the Cantabrian Mountain range. In this study, we characterized the plant species composition and soil seed bank after prescribed burning in three heathlands on their southern distribution limit in Spain, to gain insights into regenerative capacity and conservation of these communities. The results obtained suggest that the post-burn soil seed bank could restore Calluna-dominated vegetation in these habitats, indicating that the restoration potential from the soil seed bank after wildfires of these habitats is high. Our results also suggest that, in the short term after burning, the main characteristic species such as Calluna and Erica are recovered, which is fundamental to maintain the heathland community structure. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

11 pages, 1218 KiB  
Article
Soil Seed Banks of Dry Tropical Forests under Different Land Management
by Sandra Josefina del Valle Bravo, Nelly Roxana Abdala and Amalia Valeria Ibáñez-Moro
Forests 2023, 14(1), 3; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/f14010003 - 20 Dec 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1180
Abstract
The objectives of this study were to evaluate woody-species composition and seed density in the soil seed bank (SSB) in a dry subtropical forest with different disturbance regimes and assess the role of leaf litter as a seed reservoir in disturbed forests. Study [...] Read more.
The objectives of this study were to evaluate woody-species composition and seed density in the soil seed bank (SSB) in a dry subtropical forest with different disturbance regimes and assess the role of leaf litter as a seed reservoir in disturbed forests. Study area: the western Argentine Chaco region. Climate is seasonal and semiarid, and the fire season coincides with the dry and cool periods. In the first step, we evaluated the composition of species and seed density in the soils of forests with four different combinations of disturbances (wildfires, livestock, roller-chopping, and logging) using a systematic sampling design. In the second step, we assessed the seed density in the soil and litter fractions under focal individuals of six native woody species in two forest types (undisturbed/disturbed by roller-chopper and wildfires). Soil samples were extracted by core following standard methods for SSB studies. Eleven woody species were found in the SSB. The seed density varied between 17.78 seeds/samples in the reference condition forest and 5.46 seeds/samples in the more intensively disturbed forest (wildfires and livestock). The tree seed abundance was reduced in the disturbed forest SSB and the shrubby species increased. There were no significant differences in the seed density among the soil and litter fractions of each type of forest, but disturbances reduced the seed density in the litter fraction. The leaf litter is a seed reservoir in the soils of the Chaco forests, but this localization could promote loss by fires and desiccation. Our results could improve the forestry management plans in areas exposed to climate and land-use change. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

17 pages, 2959 KiB  
Article
Composition and Spatial Variation of Germinable Seed Bank in Burned Nothofagus pumilio Forests in Patagonia Argentina
by M. Florencia Urretavizcaya, Viviana Albarracín, Ivonne Orellana, M. Melisa Rago, Pablo López Bernal, Lucas Monelos and Pablo Luis Peri
Forests 2022, 13(11), 1902; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/f13111902 - 12 Nov 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1530
Abstract
The availability of soil-stored seed determines initial plant functional types in post-fire landscapes. We evaluated the post-fire regeneration of Nothofagus pumilio forests, in Patagonia, Argentina, analyzing the soil seed bank (SSB) and the above-ground vegetation (AV). At three sites: La Colisión, Río Turbio [...] Read more.
The availability of soil-stored seed determines initial plant functional types in post-fire landscapes. We evaluated the post-fire regeneration of Nothofagus pumilio forests, in Patagonia, Argentina, analyzing the soil seed bank (SSB) and the above-ground vegetation (AV). At three sites: La Colisión, Río Turbio and Monte Zeballos, burned in 2008, 1980 and 1941, respectively, we sampled the SSB and AV in two transects from the edge of the remaining forest, up to 90 m within the burned area, and recorded the emergence (198 soil samples) and presence of vascular species. To determine the effect of the distance to the remnant forest on the germinable seed bank, we performed simple linear regression analysis through the use of linear mixed-effect models, and we analyzed the similarity between the composition of SSB and AV with PERMANOVA. The emergence of plant growth forms had different patterns in relation to the distance from the forest in the three sites, which might be associated with the time of fire occurrence, and specific characteristics of each site. The emergence of N. pumilio was registered at more than one distance at the recent burning site. Herbs constituted the main source of cover with 69% of the composition, and native/endemic species represented 71%. This study contributes to the understanding of the relationship between the seed bank and standing vegetation and a better understanding of the resilience of post-fire N. pumilio forests. Our findings suggest that from 15–20 m from the edge, the SSB would be insufficient to ensure the spontaneous recovery of the forest, making active restoration necessary in order to tend to a recovery of the structure and functionality of the original community. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop