Seed supply and regeneration potential of sand-fixing vegetation with different establishment years in the southeastern edge of the Tengger Desert
Received date: 2024-06-23
Accepted date: 2024-08-22
Online published: 2025-02-19
Supported by
Leading Talents in Scientific and Technological Innovation in Ningxia(2021GKLRLX13);National Natural Science Foundation of China(32060313)
Aims: In arid sandy areas, while the sand-fixing vegetation system is crucial to maintaining ecological security, artificial vegetation gradually often faces the risk of degradation with the increase of the growth period. Recently, it has become an urgent theoretical and technical challenge to maintain the relative stability of sand-fixing vegetation systems, as well as promote their natural regeneration and succession. To understand the ecological traits of seeds from sand-fixing vegetation areas with different establishment years, we collected vegetation samples from the north side of the Baotou-Lanzhou Railway at the southeastern edge of the Tengger Desert. Our objectives are to determine the characteristics of the seed rain, soil seed bank, and aboveground vegetation, along with interrelationships among them to characterize species growth and community structures in this specific environment. The overall goal is to fully understand the mechanisms of underlying vegetation renewal, succession, and stability maintenance in the sand-fixing vegetation area on the southeastern edge of the Tengger Desert, thereby providing a theoretical basis for the sustainable management of the sand-fixing vegetation system.
Methods: On the northern edge of the Baotou-Lanzhou Railway, we selected three types of sand-fixing plots with different establishment years (15-20 years, 30-40 years, 50-60 years) for a 2-year field study. We collected seed trap and soil seed bank samples annually from these plots. The collected seeds were germinated indoors, and vegetation surveys were conducted each year. The similarity of species composition between aboveground vegetation, seed rain, and soil seed bank were analyzed using the Sørensen similarity index (SI) and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordination methods. Additionally, we quantitatively analyzed the relative contributions of seed source availability versus dispersal limitation to the formation of the soil seed bank.
Results: Our results indicated that the seed rain composition in sand-fixing vegetation areas with different establishment years was dominated by annual herbs, with their density dynamics showing a bimodal distribution pattern in July and November, controlled by the phenology of seed dispersal. The highest seed rain density was observed in sand-fixing vegetation established for 30-40 years. The soil seed bank composition in these areas was primarily composed of annual herbs, exhibiting characteristics of both transient and persistent seed banks, with a tendency towards persistent seed banks. However, seeds of Caragana korshinskii showed typical transient soil seed bank characteristics. The highest soil seed bank density was found in the surface soil layer and in areas established for 30-40 years. Aboveground vegetation in sand-fixing areas generally exhibited a simple structure. The similarity between mobile dune areas and areas established for 50-60 years was higher than that between areas established for the 15-20 years and those established for 30-40 years. Furthermore, the similarity between soil seed banks and aboveground vegetation was higher than that between seed rain and aboveground vegetation. Regarding the similarity in monthly species composition, the highest similarity within groups was found in the soil seed bank, followed by aboveground vegetation. Additionally, our species composition similarity results between aboveground vegetation, seed rain, and soil seed bank, showed no significant differences using both SI and NMDS ordination methods. Both methods revealed that similarities between aboveground vegetation, seed rain, and soil seed banks tend to increase with sand-fixing duration.
Conclusion: Persistent soil seed banks serve as a potential driving force for long-term vegetation renewal, while seed rain enhances the potential for vegetation regeneration. In this study, we determined that sand-fixing vegetation areas in the southeastern edge of the Tengger Desert, as well as the occurrence of seed rain, the composition of the soil seed bank, and the characteristics of aboveground vegetation, exhibit significant differences in species and habitat. Additionally, we found that as the duration of sand-fixing increases, the degree of connection among the three components (seed rain, soil seed bank, and aboveground vegetation) also increases, tending to form a local soil seed bank supplementation mechanism that supports the cyclical renewal and maintenance processes of aboveground vegetation.
Wenjie Qu , Lei Wang , Wenyan Kang , Xinguo Yang , Jianjun Qu , Xue Zhang . Seed supply and regeneration potential of sand-fixing vegetation with different establishment years in the southeastern edge of the Tengger Desert[J]. Biodiversity Science, 2025 , 33(1) : 24254 . DOI: 10.17520/biods.2024254
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