RE: Introduction to soil seed bank
Very interesting!
I have a question though,
The absence of a soil seed bank impedes the establishment of vegetation during primary succession, while presence of a well-stocked soil seed bank permits rapid development of species-rich ecosystems during secondary succession.
What do you mean by primary and secondary succession? The 'generation' (I'm sorry if that's not the right term) of plants that germinate after the soil meets the condition?
Also, in this seed bank is a reservoir of every vegetal species previously on the forest? What about seeds that are more sensible to suffer fire damage or those with a less effective 'dormant seed' mechanism? I assume they eventually reach the new forest, but by regular seed transport mechanisms?
I enjoyed reading a lot :)
let me first thaank you for coming and taking time out to read this article of mine. I will address the issues you raised one after the other;
Primary succesion means the establishment of vegetation on a soil that never had one while secondary succession is the gradual phasing out of the pioneer plant species and the ushering-in of new, more stable plant community.
Virtually, all seed-producing plants have representatives in the seed bank. However, these seeds might be more or less viable. If we include vegetative propagules like stem, remains of roots etc., all above ground vegetation should have seed bank progenies.
During fire, the fire-sensitive seeds are killed-off from the seed bank while the heat/smoke from the fire act as dormancy-breaking mechanism of certain dormant seeds. Not all forests can return to original status without manual planting of certain species.
Hope I have been able to answer your questions.
You're welcome. As I said, I enjoyed it.
My questions have been answered :) thanks!