Abstract
To evaluate the efficacy of passive restoration on soil seed bank and vegetation recovery, we measured the species composition and density of the soil seed bank, as well as the species composition, density, coverage, and height of the extant vegetation in sites passively restored for 0, 4, 7, and 12 years (S0, S4, S7, and S12) in a degraded grassland in desert land. Compared with S0, three more species in the soil seed bank at depths of 0–30 cm and one more plant species in the community was detected in S12. Seed density within the topsoil (0–5 cm) was five times higher in S12 than that in S0. Plant densities in S7 and S12 were triple and quadruple than that in S0. Plant coverage was increased by 1.5 times (S4), double (S7), and triple (S12) compared with S0. Sørensen’s index of similarity in species composition between the soil seed bank and the plant community were high (0.43–0.63), but it was lower in short-term restoration sites (S4 and S7) than that in no and long-term restoration sites (S0 and S12). The soil seed bank recovered more slowly than the plant community under passive restoration. Passive restoration is a useful method to recover the soil seed bank and vegetation in degraded grasslands.
Highlights
Desertification of sandy areas in Northeast China, which is primarily triggered by overgrazing [1,2], poses a serious threat to ecosystem structure and function, resulting in reduced productivity [3]
Some ecologists have documented that passive restoration of degraded lands should be considered first because passive restoration relies on the natural succession of a regressive ecosystem to drive recovery without anthropogenic help, which has excluded the disturbance of domestic animals [8,9,10]; the cost is much cheaper than the active method
Our findings suggest that passive restoration can increase the number of species and their seed density in the soil seed bank, increasing ecosystem resilience [34,35,36]
Summary
Desertification of sandy areas in Northeast China, which is primarily triggered by overgrazing [1,2], poses a serious threat to ecosystem structure and function, resulting in reduced productivity [3]. Restoration methods such as passive restoration (i.e., removing domestic grazers) and active restoration (i.e., replanting target plant) have been widely used in degraded sandy grasslands [4,5,6,7]. The different results mainly depended on the variety in seed production and emergence capacity, plant growth and dispersal, and the ratio of weeds to grass across the different grasslands [15]
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