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Can the soil seed bank contribute to revegetation of the drawdown zone in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region?

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Abstract

The drawdown zone of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region was assumed to be completely formed in 2009 and the water level would range from ~145 m in flood season (summer) to ~175 m during non-flood season (winter). The soil seed bank is an important propagule source for vegetation restoration. In order to evaluate the potential of the soil seed bank to revegetate the drawdown zone of this region, we examined the quantitative relationships between the germinable soil seed bank and the established vertical and horizontal vegetation patterns. A total of 45 soil samples at four sites was collected to examine seed bank density, species richness, and composition using the seedling-emergence method. Forty-five species (from 20 families) germinated from the soil seed bank, and the average seed density was 4578 m−2. The seed bank was dominated by annual plants, suggesting reestablishment of some above-ground species was plausible. However, most established woody plants and perennials were absent from the seed bank indicating a low probability of reestablishment for non-annuals through the seed bank. Thus, due to low species compositional similarity to extant vegetation and the dominance of annual plants, the soil seed bank had a low potential to restore pre-dam vegetation in the drawdown zone of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region, but its potential as a propagule source should be considered regarding the management of the drawdown zone for vegetation cover.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr. Gui-Hua Liu for assistance in experiment design, Dr. Jian-Xiong Liao for help with data analysis, Dr. Scott Franklin for valuable comments on early versions of this article, and to Min Tao, Qing-Gang Wang, and Zhen-Tian Miao for their help with sample collection and the seed germination experiment. This research was financially supported by China Key Technology Research & Development Program (Grant No. 2006BAC10B01), the Chinese Academy of Sciences Action Plan for the Development of Western China (Grant No. KZCX2-XB2-07), the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. 54O754501J0447), and the Project Sponsored by the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (Grant No. 1ZO91Z191J0219).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, 430074, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China

    Zhi-Jun Lu, Lian-Fa Li, Ming-Xi Jiang, Han-Dong Huang & Da-Chuan Bao

  2. Wuhan Botanical Garden, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, 430074, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China

    Zhi-Jun Lu, Lian-Fa Li, Ming-Xi Jiang, Han-Dong Huang & Da-Chuan Bao

  3. Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100049, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Lian-Fa Li & Da-Chuan Bao

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  1. Zhi-Jun Lu
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Correspondence to Ming-Xi Jiang.

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Zhi-Jun Lu and Lian-Fa Li contributed equally to this study.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 4.

Table 4 Density (mean ± SE, seeds m−2, all species pooled) of seedlings germinating from seed banks at the four sites (Changshou, Zhongxian, Wushan and Zigui) in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region
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Lu, ZJ., Li, LF., Jiang, MX. et al. Can the soil seed bank contribute to revegetation of the drawdown zone in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region?. Plant Ecol 209, 153–165 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-010-9732-y

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