Authors examined vegetation, surface seed and soil seed bank composition in rough fescue grasslands under grazing intensities, varying from no grazing to heavy grazing. Seeds in the soil were least abundant and surface seeds were most abundant on heavily grazed plots. However, under heavy grazing, seed composition was dominated by early seral whitlow-grass seeds, and the number of rough fescue and forb seeds was very low. Grass seeds were greatest at the surface, while forb seeds where more commonly found in the soil. As soil depth increased, the number of germinable seeds decreased. The effects of light and moderate grazing were minimal compared to the effects of heavy grazing. Heavy grazing impacted the seral stage of the grasslands by reducing the presence of rough fescue in the vegetation and seed bank and making recovery to a late seral state difficult.
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