A study on the soil seed bank of Nyala area, south Darfur, Sudan

Abstract

This research is an ecological study on the vegetation of Nyala area, South Darfur State, Sudan. The main objectives of this research is determination of soil seed bank of species in the study area. The collected plant species were identified checked via the aid of the herbarium of the Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of Khartoum. Twenty-seven plant species have been identified from the study of soil seed bank. The most dominant of these species were Euphorbia aegyptiaca, Dactyloctenium eagypticum, Eragrostis tenella, Corchorus trilocularis and Amaranthus graecizans. The number of dead seeds/m2 on the upper soil surface layer (0-5 cm) was 12150, while that of live seeds was 5560. The number of dead seeds/m2 for the lower soil depth (5-10 cm) was 9707 and that of live seeds was 3254 seeds/m2. Statistical analysis of the data of the soil seed bank showed that there were statistically significant differences between the number of dead and live seeds/m2 at the same soil depth and among different soil depths.