Institute of Botany, Faculty of Biology, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 3, 30-387, Kraków, Poland.
Sci Rep. 2022 Jun 29;12(1):10965. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-14681-1.
In the last decades, biological invasions become the main driver of biodiversity loss. The changes can be noticed not only in the above-ground diversity but also in the underground, including seed banks of native vegetation. In this study, we focus on Rudbeckia laciniata, a species introduced to many European and Asian countries, to characterize its soil seed bank as well as to answer the question, how the species influenced soil seed banks of meadow plant communities in two types of habitats (fresh and wet), where traditional mowing was abandoned. Within the habitats, we conducted our study on a three-step scale of invasion, from full invasion, through the transition zone to the control zone, where no invasion of the species has been observed so far. The majority of the R. laciniata seeds were located in the surface layer of soil. We detected, that 47% (in fresh meadow) and 56% (wet meadow) of recorded species occurred only in a soil seed bank, and were absent in aboveground vegetation. Emergence of native plants from the soil seed bank is low due to rapid shading of the soil surface by R. laciniata seedlings. However, a short-term seed bank of the species gives hope that returning to regular mowing brings the desired results in its the elimination from vegetation, in a fairly short time.
在过去的几十年里，生物入侵成为生物多样性丧失的主要驱动因素。这种变化不仅在地上生物多样性中可见，在地下生物多样性中也可见，包括本地植被的种子库。在这项研究中，我们专注于一种被引入到许多欧洲和亚洲国家的植物——皱叶狗尾草（Rudbeckia laciniata），以描述其土壤种子库，并回答以下问题：该物种如何影响两种生境（湿地和旱地）中草地植物群落的土壤种子库，这两种生境已不再进行传统的刈割。在生境中，我们在三个入侵阶段进行了研究，从完全入侵、过渡区到控制区，到目前为止，该物种在控制区尚未被观察到入侵。大多数皱叶狗尾草种子位于土壤表层。我们发现，在湿地草地中，47%的记录物种和旱地草地中 56%的记录物种仅存在于土壤种子库中，而在地上植被中不存在。由于皱叶狗尾草幼苗迅速遮蔽了土壤表面，因此，土壤种子库中本地植物的萌发率较低。然而，该物种的短期种子库让人们希望恢复定期刈割能在相当短的时间内带来预期的效果，即从植被中消除该物种。
