Ecology of Soil Seed Banks examines the factors that influence seed bank dynamics and the variety of patterns found among different species. This book presents seed banks in a community context to explore the ecological implications of different patterns, and thus begin the development of a synthesis by comparing various communities. Organized into five parts, this book first examines the general processes that influence inputs or losses from the seed bank, including predation, dormancy/germination mechanisms, and their evolutionary importance. Then, this text examines seed banks in a community context. Only eight vegetation types are included, but the range in diversity of life form, length of growing season, and dominant environmental conditions allow comparisons of seed bank patterns. This book also explores the role of seed banks in vegetation management. This reference material will be a valuable reference material to population and community ecologists and managers. Evolutionary consequences of seed banks should be of interest to population and theoretical biologists.

This text consists of 17 papers beginning with two introductory papers on general concepts, methodological issues, and the natural history of seed banks. The body of the text is divided into 3 major sections. The first is on seed bank processes of regeneration, dormancy, germination, and evolutionary ecology of seed banks. The next eight papers cover a variety of vegetation types in several climates. Management in arable land, restoration, and conservation are topics in section four. The concluding paper is on the dynamics of the population and community of seed banks. Tables, charts, graphs, maps, nearly 60 pages of bibliography and an index are provided.

Buried viable seed banks are a fundamental aspect of seed plant biology. They play a key role in the conservation and restoration of plant communities and the response of plants to changing land use and climate. There is almost no area of plant ecology in which seed banks are not implicated. Despite several recent reviews of the ecology of seed banks, there has previously been no single source of data on seed persistence in individual species. This volume, which compiles the available data from the nineteenth century up to the end of 1993, provides this source for the 1189 members of the northwest European flora. The text describes the criteria for inclusion of data and discusses seed classification systems, the relative representation of different habitats, methods and taxa, and challenges for future research. Includes PC disc with database in searchable format.

Examines factors influencing seed-bank dynamics and the variety of patterns found among different species. Topics include: the relationship of seed banks to vegetation dynamics; processes that influence inputs and losses from seed banks; and the role and importance of seed banks in vegetable types.

What determines the number and size of the seeds produced by a plant? How often should it reproduce them? How often should a plant produce them? Why and how are seeds dispersed, and what are the implications for the diversity and composition of vegetation? These are just some of the questions tackled in this wide-ranging review of the role of seeds in the ecology of plants. The authors bring together information on the ecological aspects of seed biology, starting with a consideration of reproductive strategies in seed plants and progressing through the life cycle, covering seed maturation, dispersal, storage in the soil, dormancy, germination, seedling establishment, and regeneration in the field. The text encompasses a wide range of concepts of general relevance to plant ecology, reflecting the central role that the study of seed ecology has played in elucidating many fundamental aspects of plant community function.

This book is about the regeneration of plants from seed under field conditions. It attempts to give a reasonably balanced overview of the many aspects of this broad topic. The first chapter introduces some general ideas about reproduction in plants. Subsequent chapters deal with the early stages in the life of a plant, from ovule to established seedling, in a more or less chronological order. The final chapter shows how the data on regeneration requirements of different species can be used to explain a number of important characteristics of whole plant communities. The study of the ecological aspects of reproduction by seed touches on a range of issues of current interest in biology. A discussion of seed size and number involves a consideration of the concepts of resource allocation, life cycles and strategies. The in teractions between plants and animals seen in pollination, seed dispersal and predation provide excellent material for the study of coevolution. Investigations on regeneration from seed have greatly our understanding of the causes and maintenance of species added to diversity. The reader will find that virtually all the experiments and field observations described in this book are conceptually very simple. Many of them merely required numerous careful measurements.