The role of soil seed banks in regeneration in canopy gaps in Australian tropical lowland rainforest - preliminary field experiments
1984
Hopkins, M.S. | Graham, A.W. (Institute of Biological Resources, Canberra (Australia). Division of Water and Land Resources)
Field experiments involving the exposure of surface soil in canopy gaps showed that viable soil seed banks beneath tropical rain-forest in north Queensland contributed to 200-300 seedlings per m(2) to pioneer regeneration in gaps. From 92-97% of the viable seeds in the samples of the medium (170-180 m(3)) and large gap (4 ha) germinated or lost viability during a 14 week exposure. Most of the pioneer heliophytes with their small, epigeal-germinating seeds were shortlived in the shade where leaf fall and drip erosion were observed to smoother or dislodge the minute, etiolated seedlings. The relatively high seed and seedling mortality in the large gap was thought to be associated with high temperatures and desiccative conditions in the exposed mineral soil. The appreciate proportions of the soil seed bank which germinated in the deep shade suggested that factors associated with soil disturbance in shade, apart from high and fluctuating temperatures and light qualities and quantities in gaps, can trigger germination of some of the pioneer species in the seed banks
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