Bud Bank Traits Research Articles

Unravelling the clonal trait space: Beyond above‐ground and fine‐root traits

Abstract Plant trait variation is constrained by mechanical and energetic trade‐offs as attested by the global spectrum of plant form and function and the fine‐root economics space for above‐ and below‐ground traits. However, traits that are key for fitness maintenance in some plant groups, such as clonal and bud bank traits, have not yet been integrated within the frameworks provided by the above‐ground and the fine‐root economics space. By using an extensive dataset encompassing above‐ground, fine‐root, clonal and bud bank traits of 2000 species of Central European herbs, we asked whether clonal and bud bank traits correspond to the placement of species in the above‐ground or fine‐root trait space. Perennial clonal and non‐clonal herbs show indistinct positioning within the above‐ground and fine‐root trait spaces. This extends and reinforces previous fragmentary evidence of weak correlations between clonal and bud bank traits and above‐ground trait dimensions. Additionally, we identify for the first time a limited correlation between clonal and fine‐root traits as well. This disconnection suggests that clonal traits operate independently from other trait spectra. For this reason, we introduce the concept of a ‘clonal trait space’ for clonal herbs. The first dimension of this space is defined by bud bank size and the persistence of clonal connection, reflecting a gradient of species specialisation for on‐spot persistence and tolerance to disturbance (persistence dimension). The second dimension, defined by multiplication rate and lateral spread, reflects a specialisation axis for clonal multiplication and horizontal size dimension (clonal multiplication dimension). Clonal trait dimensions add non‐redundant information to the above‐ground or fine‐roots trait space. Synthesis: We champion the integration of the persistence and clonal multiplication dimensions from the ‘clonal trait space’ into the frameworks provided by the above‐ground trait and the fine‐root economics spaces, thereby enhancing our comprehension of the multifaceted trait strategies exhibited by plants.

Changes in bud bank and their correlation with plant community composition in degraded alpine meadows.

Bud banks are considered a crucial factor in regulating the species composition of grassland communities and maintaining the ecological function of alpine grasslands. However, few studies have paid attention to the dynamic changes of bud banks from undisturbed to severely degraded alpine meadows. Therefore, this study examined the correlations between plant diversity and bud bank traits at different stages of alpine meadows degradation. Grass biomasses and plant diversity were found to be highest in moderately degraded meadows, and sedge biomasses were highest in lightly degraded meadows. Lack of disturbance and moderate disturbance by herbivores increased the bud bank density of alpine meadows. Consistent with the changes in bud bank density, bud bank diversity was highest in undisturbed meadows. The structural equation model indicated that the densities of rhizome and the densities and diversities of tiller buds play crucial roles in facilitating the greater diversity of the plant community. Our findings suggest that the diversities and densities of rhizome and tiller buds in the degradation stages are synchronized with changes in plant diversity, and in the regenerative ability of bud banks, which largely determine the outcome of restoration in degraded meadows. These findings could provide a frame of reference for effectively restoring degraded alpine regions by regenerating bud banks. The potential driving force and renewal capacity of bud banks should be taken into account in restoring the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau's degraded meadow.

Phylogenetic diversity is a weak proxy for functional diversity but they are complementary in explaining community assembly patterns in temperate vegetation

AbstractEcological differences between coexisting species within plant communities can be assessed by considering functional and phylogenetic dissimilarities either separately or in a complementary way. Here, we studied (a) the potential overlap between functional (FD) and phylogenetic diversities (PD) and (b) their combined and unique roles in explaining community assembly patterns across different temperate vegetation types and across functional traits representing multiple dimensions of plant strategy (plant size, leaf, floral and reproductive, clonal and bud bank traits).We tested the strength of the PD–FD relationship within and across vegetation types and functional traits (Pearson correlations) and tested whether it depended on the strength of the phylogenetic signal (Pagel's lambda and Blomberg'sK). We tested deviations from random expectations in FD and ‘decoupled FD’ (i.e. functional dissimilarity after accounting for the effect of phylogenetic distances between species) to reveal the importance of ecological differences for community assembly.PD–FD correlations were predominantly significant but rarely strong, and largely depended on the studied functional trait and vegetation type. Phylogenetic signals were partially but inconsistently related to the overlap between FD and PD.Community assembly patterns tended to shift from under‐dispersion (FD lower than random expectations) towards over‐dispersion (FD higher than random expectations) when functional distances were decoupled from phylogenetic distances indicating that species within the same clade were dissimilar to each other regarding their traits. However, we found the opposite pattern as well, mainly for floral and below‐ground traits, which indicated functional differentiation across clades.Synthesis. Decoupling functional and phylogenetic differences between species might provide further information on plant community assembly: showing cases where the strongest ecological differentiation between coexisting species occurs between phylogenetically related species rather than between phylogenetically unrelated ones.

Fire exclusion changes belowground bud bank and bud-bearing organ composition jeopardizing open savanna resilience.

Belowground bud bank regeneration is a successful strategy for plants in fire-prone communities. It depends on the number and location of dormant and viable buds stored on belowground organs. A highly diverse belowground bud-bearing organ system maintained by a frequent interval of fire events guarantees the supply of a bud bank that enables plants to persist and resprout after disturbance. We investigated how different fire exclusion and fire frequencies, affected the herbaceous layer in tropical savannas, by assessing belowground persistence and regeneration traits. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that under a shorter fire exclusion period, the total bud bank increased at a lower fire frequency. But sites at longer fire exclusion and infrequent fire, the bud bank was smaller the longer the period since the last fire. However, the major shift was concerning organ diversity since fire exclusion was more related to loss of belowground diversity rather than decreasing of the belowground bud bank size. Furthermore, fire-associated bud-bearing structures like xylopodia disappeared in the fire suppressed areas, whereas clonal organs, such as rhizomes, developed in the bud bank. By quantifying belowground bud bank traits under different fire histories, we highlight the importance of the local fire regime on the composition of the belowground plant components, which can affect the tropical savanna aboveground plant community. Given that, loss of the belowground bud-bearing component of the plant community will have a direct effect on vegetation regeneration in post-fire environments, and consequently, on plant community resilience.

Disentangling the Ecological Determinants of Species and Functional Trait Diversity in Herb-Layer Plant Communities in European Temperate Forests

Forest herb-layer vegetation responds sensitively to environmental conditions. This paper compares drivers of both taxonomic, i.e., species richness, cover and evenness, and functional herb-layer diversity, i.e., the diversity of clonal, bud bank and leaf-height-seed plant traits. We investigated the dependence of herb-layer diversity on ecological determinants related to soil properties, climatic parameters, forest stand characteristics, and topographic and abiotic and biotic factors associated with forest floor structure. The study was conducted in different forest types in Slovenia, using vegetation and environmental data from 50 monitoring plots (400 m2 each) belonging to the ICP Forests Level I and II network. The main objective was to first identify significant ecological predictors and then quantify their relative importance. Species richness was strongly determined by forest stand characteristics, such as richness of the shrub layer, tree layer shade-casting ability as a proxy for light availability and tree species composition. It showed a clear positive relation to soil pH. Variation in herb-layer cover was also best explained by forest stand characteristics and, to a lesser extent, by structural factors such as moss cover. Species evenness was associated with tree species composition, shrub layer cover and soil pH. Various ecological determinants were decisive for the diversity of below-ground traits, i.e., clonal and bud bank traits. For these two trait groups we observed a substantial climatic signal that was completely absent for taxonomy-based measures of diversity. In contrast, above-ground leaf-height-seed (LHS) traits were driven exclusively by soil reaction and nitrogen availability. In synthesis, local stand characteristics and soil properties acted as the main controlling factors for both species and trait diversity in herb-layer communities across Slovenia, confirming many previous studies. Our findings suggest that the taxonomic and functional facets of herb-layer vegetation are mainly influenced by a similar set of ecological determinants. However, their relative importance varies among individual taxonomy- and functional trait-based diversity measures. Integrating multi-faceted approaches can provide complementary information on patterns of herb-layer diversity in European forest plant communities.

Plant functional traits are correlated with species persistence in the herb layer of old-growth beech forests

This paper explores which traits are correlated with fine-scale (0.25 m2) species persistence patterns in the herb layer of old-growth forests. Four old-growth beech forests representing different climatic contexts (presence or absence of summer drought period) were selected along a north–south gradient in Italy. Eight surveys were conducted in each of the sites during the period spanning 1999–2011. We found that fine-scale species persistence was correlated with different sets of plant functional traits, depending on local ecological context. Seed mass was found to be as important for the fine-scale species persistence in the northern sites, while clonal and bud-bank traits were markedly correlated with the southern sites characterised by summer drought. Leaf traits appeared to correlate with species persistence in the drier and wetter sites. However, we found that different attributes, i.e. helomorphic vs scleromorphic leaves, were correlated to species persistence in the northernmost and southernmost sites, respectively. These differences appear to be dependent on local trait adaptation rather than plant phylogenetic history. Our findings suggest that the persistent species in the old-growth forests might adopt an acquisitive resource-use strategy (i.e. helomorphic leaves with high SLA) with higher seed mass in sites without summer drought, while under water-stressed conditions persistent species have a conservative resource-use strategy (i.e. scleromorphic leaves with low SLA) with an increased importance of clonal and resprouting ability.

Climate is the main driver of clonal and bud bank traits in Italian forest understories

The study of plant trait-environment links is rarely focused on traits that inform on space occupancy and resprouting (both affecting plant persistence), especially in forest understories. Traits that can effectively capture such key functions are associated with clonality and bud banks. We hypothesized that: 1) climate is the main driver of clonal and bud bank traits, 2) traits related to space occupancy (e.g., greater lateral spread) are more important in more mesic, richer soils forests, and 3) traits related to resprouting ability (e.g., larger bud bank) are more important in more intensively and recently managed forests. We addressed these hypotheses by analysing a unique dataset that is statistically representative of Italian forests heterogeneity and includes three biogeographic regions (Alpine, Continental, Mediterranean). We recorded data for sixteen climatic, soil and management variables. We calculated community weighted mean (CWM) values of seven clonal and bud bank traits for the forest understory vegetation. We used i) redundancy analysis to assess trait-environment relations, and ii) variance partitioning analyses to identifying the relative role of different groups of abiotic variables on CWM variation of all traits combined together, as well as clonal and bud bank traits taken separately. Climate alone had a pervasive effect in determining patterns of clonal and bud bank traits in Italian forest understories, mainly related to the effects of temperature extremes and seasonality. Unexpectedly, soil and management factors alone showed marginal effects on clonal and bud bank traits. However, soil features influenced trait patterns when joined with climate. Our results confirmed that, at the biogeographic scale, climate played a lion-share role in determining persistence-related traits of forest-floor plants. At the local-scale, other interplaying factors (e.g., management, soil variables) may come into play in shaping patterns of the studied plant traits. This study stressed the importance of examining functional trait patterns along complex environmental gradients.

The ecology and significance of below-ground bud banks in plants.

Below-ground bud banks have experienced much recent interest due to discoveries that they (1) account for the majority of seasonal population renewal in many communities, (2) are crucial to regeneration following disturbance, and (3) have important consequences for plant population dynamics and plant and ecosystem function across a number of habitats. This review presents an overview of the role of bud banks in plant population renewal, examines bud bank life history, summarizes bud bank traits and their potential ecological implications, synthesizes the response of bud banks to disturbance, and highlights gaps to guide future research. The characteristics and life history of buds, including their natality, dormancy, protection and longevity, provide a useful framework for advancing our understanding of bud banks. The fate of buds depends on their age, size, type, location, and biotic and abiotic factors that collectively regulate bud bank dynamics. A bud bank can provide a demographic storage effect stabilizing population dynamics, and also confer resistance to disturbance and invasion. Regeneration capacity following disturbance is determined by interactions among the rates of bud natality, depletion and dormancy (meristem limitation), and the resources available to support the regeneration process. The resulting response of plants and their bud banks to disturbances such as fire, herbivory and anthropogenic sources determines the community's regenerative capacity. Vegetation responses to environmental change may be mediated through changes in bud bank dynamics and phenology. Environmental change that depletes the bud bank or prohibits its formation likely results in a loss of vegetation resilience and plant species diversity. Standardization of bud sampling, examination of bud banks in more ecosystems and their response to environmental variation and disturbance regimes, employment of stage-structured bud bank modelling and evaluation of the cost of bud bank construction and maintenance will benefit this expanding field of research.

Effects of disturbance frequency and severity on plant traits: An assessment across a temperate flora

Abstract Recent analyses of plant traits across large sets of species have revolutionized our understanding of plant functional differentiation. However, understanding of ecological relevance of this differentiation is contingent upon knowledge of environmental preferences of species, namely along gradients of disturbance and productivity for which no quantitative data were available until recently. We examined the relationships of key functional traits (life‐history categories, leaf‐height‐seed (LHS) traits, clonal growth and bud bank traits) in the herb‐dominated flora of Central Europe to species niche positions along the gradients of disturbance frequency, disturbance severity and productivity. Life‐history categories and bud bank size showed the strongest response to disturbance and productivity, whereas relationship of LHS traits was much weaker. A number of traits, including clonal growth form and bud bank size, showed a significantly unimodal response to disturbance frequency. Responses of many traits to disturbance frequency were different from their responses to disturbance severity. Our findings support the notions that disturbance and productivity are key gradients of species functional differentiation and that disturbance severity and frequency select for different trait suites. Furthermore, the data indicate that in a predominantly herbaceous flora, the traits of life span, clonal growth and resprouting show stronger relationship with the environment than the LHS traits, which are more important in floras with high proportions of woody species. Since most previous trait analyses are based on woody‐plant‐dominated floras, patterns revealed in a herb‐dominated flora deepen our understanding of the full range of variation within the plant kingdom. A plain language summary is available for this article.

Clonal vs leaf-height-seed (LHS) traits: which are filtered more strongly across habitats?

Plant functional traits are now frequently used instead of species identity to identify how plant species co-exist in assemblages. One notion is that species inhabiting the same environment have more characteristics in common than species from different habitats, leading to different prevailing dominant traits along environmental gradients, and also to a lesser diversity of traits in habitats that impose a stronger filter on these traits. Though such patterns have been demonstrated for different environmental drivers and different traits, studies using easily available traits connected to above ground processes (i.e. traits of the leaf-height-seed, or LHS, strategy scheme) are largely overrepresented in these analyses. Here we combined data on clonal and bud bank traits, representing the ability to reproduce and spread vegetatively, with LHS trait data and examined how these traits varied in relation to the vegetational composition of 29 Central-European habitat types. Our analysis focused on determining whether clonal/bud bank or LHS traits play an important role for environmental filtering along gradients approximated by Ellenberg indicator values (EIV) across these habitats. Our results show that clonal and bud bank traits are at least as – if not more – important for the differentiation of the 29 habitat types. Overall, diversity and dominance of clonal and bud bank traits was more strongly correlated with gradients of light availability, temperature, moisture, soil reaction, and nutrient availability across these habitats than it was the case for traits of the leaf-height-seed scheme. Our results call for a stronger integration of belowground traits into the functional traits approach in plant ecology and for an extension of efforts to collect such data.

Underground organs of Brazilian Asteraceae: testing the CLO-PLA database traits

Not all plant traits from all regions have been standardized or databased. Some ecosystems, such as tropical grasslands, are under-represented in such databases owing to the difficulty in assessing bud banks and evaluating clonal growth. This study aimed to (i) determine whether Brazilian morphological traits of belowground organs can be translated into categories used in the CLO-PLA database and (ii) assess the applicability of clonal and bud bank traits standardized in the CLO-PLA database for Brazilian Aldama species, which have specialized belowground organs and are able to resprout. In all, 165 species, including herbs, subshrubs and shrubs, of 37 genera from different Brazilian ecosystems, were evaluated. Not all the traditional Brazilian morphological categories could be translated into CLO-PLA traits, resulting in a lower number of categories and loss of information regarding plant morphology. Furthermore, clonal and bud bank traits could be only partially evaluated for Aldama, since some traits showed seasonal variation. The CLO-PLA classification focused on the organs in relation to the soil surface, the connection between mother and daughter shoots, and the origin of buds from which daughter shoots sprout. In the Brazilian classification, by contrast, anatomical features or early ontogeny of the organ are very important. Nevertheless, our results might form the basis for future comparative studies across ecosystems and biomes, for which common trait standardization is necessary. However, further research is needed to assess the functional morphology of clonal and bud bank traits in tropical regions.

Reproduction by seed and clonality in plants: correlated syndromes or independent strategies?

Summary We examine the relationships of traits of seed reproduction to traits of clonal growth and bud banks. Although there are a number of functional differences between these sets of traits underlying two different modes of reproduction, they both constitute a response to ecological gradients, which makes them potentially interdependent. We performed phylogenetic regressions of seed traits and traits of bud banks and clonal growth across the Central European flora. We took Ellenberg indicator values and indices of responses to disturbance as information on the positions of species optima along important ecological gradients. The analyses show that there are almost no relationships between these two groups of traits. This contrasts with the existence of strong correlations within these groups of traits which indicate specific syndromes of seed reproduction and of clonality. Both seed traits and traits of bud banks and clonal growth show fairly strong phylogenetic conservatism. The absence of correlations between individual groups of traits is at least partly due to the fact that each trait group shows relationships to different parameters of species' niches. Bud bank traits are determined by the disturbance niche of the species, clonal traits by soil and climatic factors, while seed traits show only weak correlations with the examined environmental factors if phylogeny is taken into account. Synthesis. The absence of integrated syndromes that would cover both seed reproduction and clonality across the flora implies that there are no selective forces that would affect both trait groups simultaneously. Clonal and bud bank traits are more tightly linked to species' niches, presumably because they are selected by local population processes only, in contrast to seed traits, which play a role also in dispersal. As the phylogenetic conservatism of clonal traits is almost as strong as the phylogenetic conservatism of seed traits, these traits do not serve as an evolutionarily more flexible alternative to seed reproduction.

Clonal and bud bank traits: patterns across temperate plant communities

AbstractQuestionsWe examine patterns of clonal traits and below‐ground bud bank traits in plant communities over a large set of temperate vegetation types. We asked (i) how clonal traits are distributed in different community types and (ii) what are within‐community patterns of these traits as an indication of their role in species coexistence and community assembly.LocationCzech Republic.MethodsWe use a stratified set of more than 20,000 vegetation records from the Czech National Phytosociological Database as a source of species co‐occurrence and habitat type data, and combined it with data on clonal and bud bank traits from the CLO‐PLA database. We calculated both community trait means and dispersions for all records in the database and used a series of randomization tests to assess effects of environmental filtering and within‐community assembly.ResultsHabitat filtering was stronger in bud bank traits than in clonal traits. The key factors driving structure of clonal traits in Central Europe seem to be differences in productivity and in wetness. These gradients are responsible for a major change in clonal growth parameters, from clonal plants with short and persistent connections in dry and unproductive habitats to plants with long‐ and short‐lived connections in wet and productive sites. Size of the bud bank is rather uncorrelated with this gradient: species with small below‐ground bud bank size prevail in highly disturbed and in water habitats. None of the traits showed significant overdispersion, either at the level of the whole data set, or at the level of individual habitat types.ConclusionsCapacity for clonal growth occurs under many different environmental regimes and can give rise to very different growth forms. Therefore, using capacity for clonal growth as a proxy for clonal reproduction, capture of horizontal space or resprouting capacity may hinder understanding of its role. Absence of overdispersion after accounting for habitat filtering means that we found no evidence that clonal traits play a role in niche‐based coexistence processes.

Patterns of Clonal Growth Modes Along a Chronosequence of Post-Coppice Forest Regeneration in Beech Forests of Central Italy

Forest coppicing leads to changes in composition of the herbaceous understory through soil disturbance and alteration of the light regime. While the role of seed dispersal traits at the start of succession after coppicing has been extensively studied, the role of persistence traits such as clonal growth and bud banks is not yet sufficiently understood. To gain better understanding of this role, we studied the patterns of clonal growth organs and related clonal traits of species in a series of coppiced beech forests of the Central Apennines (Marches region, Italy) in various stages of recovery after the last coppicing event. We conducted stratified random sampling and established a chronosequence of recovery stages based on stand age (reflecting the number of years since the last coppicing). The beech stands were classified into three age groups (Post-logged, Recovering, and Old-coppice stands) according to the characteristic stages of beech coppice dynamics. Clonal growth organs and the corresponding clonal traits of plants in the forest understory vegetation were assessed with the help of a CLO-PLA1 database. We found no significant change in the proportion of clonal species along the studied chronosequence. In contrast, most of the traits and about the half of the clonal growth organs showed correlation with stand age or preference for a certain habitat (i.e., stage of regeneration). Clonal and bud bank traits proved to play an important role in the persistence of species subjected to forest coppicing cycles in the studied area.

Searching for the Relevance of Clonal and Bud Bank Traits Across Floras and Communities

Plant functional traits, i.e., characteristics of an organism which have demonstrable links to the organism’s function, are being increasingly considered for understanding community dynamics and the ecological differentiation between species (Weiher et al. 1999; Cornelissen et al. 2003). Among the different plant traits, plant clonality (i.e., result of the vegetative growth of organs producing potentially independent vegetative offsprings) has long been recognized as an important characteristic of a species that affects population and community dynamics (Harper 1977; White 1979). Clonality provides several important plant functions, e.g., anchorage, resource acquisition, lateral spread, carbon storage, vegetative multiplication, bud protection, regrowth after disturbance and others (Grace 1993; Suzuki and Stuefer 1999; Klimesova and Klimes 2007) and can be attained via a number of different forms and organs (Groff and Kaplan 1988; Klimes et al. 1997). Clonality may play a key role in the assembly of communities and the differentiation of species composition within and across multiple vegetation types (Grace 1993; Weiher et al. 1999). However, these hypotheses remain mostly untested in literature (but see, e.g., Klimes 2003, 2008; Halassy et al. 2005; Bardgett Folia Geobot (2011) 46:109–115 DOI 10.1007/s12224-010-9088-z

Do Clonal and Bud Bank Traits Vary in Correspondence with Soil Properties and Resource Acquisition Strategies? Patterns in Alpine Communities in the Scandian Mountains

Plant traits associated with resource acquisition strategies (specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), leaf size and plant height) change along gradients of soil properties, being the most conservative in a resource-poor environment and the most dynamic in a resource-rich environment. Clonal attributes also vary along soil and other environmental conditions. We hypothesized that in alpine communities in the Scandian Mts. (1) the average composition of traits in a plant assemblage in terms of i) the predominance of different clonal growth organ types, ii) the number of buds in the bud bank, iii) the distribution of the bud-bank (above- and below ground), iv) the distance of lateral spread and v) the longevity of plant – offspring connections would change along a gradient of soil properties and (2) that this variation would be in correspondence with that of traits associated with resource acquisition strategies (SLA, LDMC, leaf size and plant height). Analysis of clonal and bud bank traits for species of alpine communities supported our first hypothesis: with decreasing soil quality the most common clonal growth organs were rhizomes, and there was a predominance of perennial bud banks located at the soil surface or below-ground, low rates of lateral spread and long persistence of plant – offspring connections. Our second hypothesis was partly supported. As predicted, at the level of the plant assemblage, these clonal and bud bank traits were positively associated with LDMC, and negatively with leaf size and plant height. These observations reinforce the hypotheses about trade-offs between acquisition and retention strategies in plants. The only result that was in contradiction with our expectations was the lack of correspondence between clonal and bud bank traits and SLA that could be attributed to errors associated to the measurement of the area of narrow and small leaves or to the dependence of the SLA index on species-specific morphological attributes.

CLO‐PLA: the database of clonal and bud bank traits of Central European flora§

Abstract: Clonal growth of plants is mainly a result of the vegetative growth of organs hidden beneath the soil surface and producing potentially independent vegetative offspring. Clonal traits are difficult to measure due to inaccessibility of the space they inhabit and their morphological diversity. This causes great difficulties with descriptions, standardization of measurements across plant growth forms and, probably, a lack of appropriate questions that should be answered using them. The freely available CLO‐PLA database (http://clopla.butbn.cas.cz/) can help to assess the roles of vegetative means of regeneration and spread in plant communities under the effect of various biotic and abiotic filters. It can serve as a source of reference on persistence traits of European temperate flora and, eventually, as a guide for trait sampling in other regions of the world.

Bud banks and their role in vegetative regeneration – A literature review and proposal for simple classification and assessment

Abstract While sexual regeneration of plants after disturbance is relatively well understood, vegetative regeneration has attracted some attention only recently. Its role along environmental gradients and across biomes is poorly known and standard methods for assessment are not yet established. We review current knowledge about the role of bud banks in vegetative regeneration and the diversity of their modes of functioning. The similarities and differences between bud banks and seed banks are illustrated, focusing on dormancy, dispersability, seasonal dynamics, longevity and storage of carbohydrates. We try to formulate some principles that unify bud bank functioning across habitats and growth forms: (1) the bud banks consist of all buds which may be used for vegetative regeneration, including those formed adventitiously only after injury; (2) vertical distribution of buds reflects avoidance of disturbance; (3) seasonal changes in the bud bank make vegetative regeneration sensitive to timing of disturbance; and (4) ability to form adventitious buds provides a potential for vegetative regeneration from roots, stumps and leaves. Based on these principles, a simple classification of bud banks is presented similar to the classification of seed banks. Bud bank traits are considered in relation to severity, timing and frequency of disturbance. These include vertical distribution and seasonal fluctuations in the number of buds. Methods for quantitative assessment of bud numbers and resprouting capacity are reviewed, and a new approach based on indirect bud counts is proposed. The suggested concept of bud banks may be widely used in studies focusing on plant functional traits in relation to disturbance regimes at the levels of plant individuals, populations and communities. Its further development may incorporate adjustments for areas with non-seasonal climate and refinements for some growth forms, such as epiphytes.