Rangeland Ecology & Management

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THE INFLUENCE OF PASTURE LANDSCAPE ON GERMINABLE SEED BANK HETEROGENEITY
Author
Pyle, Lysandra A.
Bork, Edward
Hall, Linda
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2014
Body

Landscape variability is known to influence soil moisture, in-turn influencing soil formation and resulting plant communities. Northern temperate pastures are typically comprised of mesic grasslands separated by depressional wetlands and intermittent woodlands. The influence of topography on the plant community is easily identified above ground, but how does this vary below ground in the seed bank? In central Alberta's Aspen Parkland, we sampled pastures to assess seed bank heterogeneity, mainly to identify the uniformity of legume seed distribution in pasture. Within each of 11 pastures, 53 soil cores, each 3.2 cm in diameter and 6 cm deep, were extracted 5 m apart in a W-shaped configuration. At each core the relative position on the landscape (upland, midslope, lowland, and flooded) and aspect were recorded. Seed from each core was germinated in individual pots, and seedlings removed and recorded once identified. We intend to use these data to quantify the heterogeneity in seed bank present of northern temperate pastures. In addition to characterizing the abundance and diversity of plant species within the seed bank at a landscape level, these results will provide important insight into the methods needed to conduct scientific investigations of pasture seed banks, including soil sampling sizes and distributions. Finally, results of this work will also help identify those species that are relatively ubiquitous in the seed bank, including those with limited seed mobility, and thus, may have particularly important conservation value.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM Orlando, FL