NDLI: How much seed remains in the soil after a fire?

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Auld, Tony D. Denham, Andrew J.
Copyright Year	2006
Abstract	Soil seed banks that persist after a fire are important in fire-prone habitats as they minimise the risk of decline or local extinction in plants, should the fire-free interval be less than the primary juvenile periods of the species. In two common woody plant genera (Acacia and Grevillea) in southeastern Australia, we examined the size and location of the residual seed bank after fire across areas of varying seedling densities at three locations in comparison to the distribution of seeds in the soil at an unburnt site. We found viable dormant seeds remaining in the soil after fire (evidence of residual soil seed bank). A significantly lower proportion of seeds remained in the top 5 cm of soil than at 5–10 cm or 10–15 cm soil depths, independent of seedling density or plant genus. This was due to greater germination, and possibly some seed mortality, near the soil surface. Reduced germination below 5 cm was probably due to the reduced efficacy of the fire cues that break seed dormancy, a declining ability of seeds to emerge successfully from such depths, and the lower abundance of seeds in the soil at such depths. The magnitude of the residual seed bank was similar across 0–5, 5–10 and 10–15 cm soil depths in Acacia suaveolens. For two Grevillea species, most residual seeds were at 0–5 and 5–10 cm. The residual soil seed bank in the top 10 cm of soil after fire varied across sites with estimates of 0, 19 and 27% in G. speciosa and 23, 35, and 55% in A. suaveolens. At two sites, both species had similar residual seed bank sizes, while at a third, there were large differences between the species (0–55%). The observed patterns imply that the fire-related cues that break seed dormancy generally declined with soil depth. For Acacia, seed dormancy is broken by heat shock, a fire-cue that declines with soil depth. Some 250 species (approx 15% of the fire-prone flora) in the region are thought to have dormancy broken by heat shock. For Grevillea, where seed dormancy is broken by the interaction of smoke and heat shock, at two sites, we suggest three possibilities: (i) the smoke cue declined with soil depth; (ii) both heat and smoke are obligatory for breaking seed dormancy; or (iii) the cues may be independent and additive and below the zone of soil heating, only a proportion of available seeds had dormancy broken by smoke alone. At a third site (no residual seed bank detected) the smoke cue was predicted not to have declined with soil depth. Up to 900 species (just under half the fire-prone flora) in the study region are thought to have seed dormancy broken by the interaction of heat and smoke during the passage of a fire.
Starting Page	15
Ending Page	24
Page Count	10
File Format	PDF
ISSN	13850237
Journal	Plant Ecology
Volume Number	187
Issue Number	1
e-ISSN	15735052
Language	English
Publisher	Kluwer Academic Publishers
Publisher Date	2006-05-03
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Acacia Depth of burial Fire frequency Grevillea Soil seed bank Southeastern Australia Seedling emergence Plant Sciences
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Ecology Plant Science

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Effects of sand burial depth and seed mass on seedling emergence and growth of Nitraria sphaerocarpa

Burial of canopy-stored seeds in the annual psammophyte Agriophyllum squarrosum Moq. (Chenopodiaceae) and its ecological significance

Edaphic constraints on seed germination and emergence of three Acacia species for dryland restoration in Saudi Arabia

Effects of amount and frequency of precipitation and sand burial on seed germination, seedling emergence and survival of the dune grass Leymus secalinus in semiarid China

Effects of sand burial depth on seed germination and seedling emergence of Cirsium pitcheri

Seed Burial Depth and Soil Water Content Affect Seedling Emergence and Growth of Ulmus pumila var. sabulosa in the Horqin Sandy Land

The dynamics of the soil seed bank after a fire event in a woody savanna in central Brazil

“Active” Weed Seed Bank: Soil Texture and Seed Weight as Key Factors of Burial-Depth Inhibition

Effects of sand burial disturbance on seedling growth of Nitraria sphaerocarpa

How much seed remains in the soil after a fire?

Similar Documents

Effects of sand burial depth and seed mass on seedling emergence and growth of Nitraria sphaerocarpa

Burial of canopy-stored seeds in the annual psammophyte Agriophyllum squarrosum Moq. (Chenopodiaceae) and its ecological significance

Edaphic constraints on seed germination and emergence of three Acacia species for dryland restoration in Saudi Arabia

Effects of amount and frequency of precipitation and sand burial on seed germination, seedling emergence and survival of the dune grass Leymus secalinus in semiarid China

Effects of sand burial depth on seed germination and seedling emergence of Cirsium pitcheri

Seed Burial Depth and Soil Water Content Affect Seedling Emergence and Growth of Ulmus pumila var. sabulosa in the Horqin Sandy Land

The dynamics of the soil seed bank after a fire event in a woody savanna in central Brazil

“Active” Weed Seed Bank: Soil Texture and Seed Weight as Key Factors of Burial-Depth Inhibition

Effects of sand burial disturbance on seedling growth of Nitraria sphaerocarpa

How much seed remains in the soil after a fire?