The soil propagule bank in a boreal old-growth spruce forest: changes with depth and relationship to aboveground vegetation

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Abstract
The species composition and the depth distribution of the soil propagule banks of bryophytes and vascular plants from three different soil layers in a boreal old-growth spruce forest in SE Norway were studied using the emergence method. A total of 34 taxa germinated with a predominance of ferns and mosses. The frequency of the different species exhibits a common community pattern with a few common and a large number of low frequency species. The tree Betula pubescens, the ferns Athyrium filix-femina, Gymnocarpium dryopteris, and Phegopteris connectilis, and the mosses Plagiothecium laetum agg. and Polytrichum spp. were the most frequent. There is only a moderate correspondence, decreasing with soil depth, between the propagule bank and the aboveground vegetation in the sampled plots. In the soil profile, the litter layer on average had more taxa than the peaty mor and bleached layer (7.7, 6.0, and 5.5 taxa, respectively). Five of the 17 taxa occurring in more than 10% of the soil samples from the different soil layers were significantly more frequent in the upper soil layer, while two taxa were more frequent in either peaty mor and (or) the bleached layer than in the uppermost layer. The propagule bank in the different soil layers represents an in situ potential for regeneration of the vegetation after different degrees of disturbance in the forest floor. Key words: disturbance, soil propagule bank, boreal forest, bryophytes, vascular plants.
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