Soil seed bank richness, abundance and density across spatial scales and global biomes

Abstract

Soil seed banks are an important component of plant population and community dynamics, buffering temporal heterogeneity and allowing populations to recover following disturbance. At the same time, patterns in soil seed banks are likely to reflect scale-dependent patterns in above-ground vegetation, patterns that differ strongly across world regions. Here, we investigate components of diversity in the soil seed bank across global biomes and ecosystems. We found that patterns of species richness in the soil seed bank diverged from patterns of seed density, although there were high levels of uncertainty, especially at smaller spatial scales. Importantly, habitat degradation consistently led to lower richness, potentially limiting future ecosystem recovery. Among ecosystems, mediterranean and tropical regions had high species richness, but seed density m-2 in the soil was highest in wetlands and arable systems. Lower seed densities were found in both high-diversity tropical biomes that are characterised by short-lived seeds, and low-diversity boreal and tundra biomes with more stable established vegetation. Our findings of divergences between species richness and seed density across global biomes, and how they are impacted by habitat degradation, give valuable insights to the understanding of plant biodiversity worldwide.