Seed bank composition and above-ground vegetation in response to grazing in sub-Mediterranean oak forests (NW Greece)
2009 | journal article. A publication with affiliation to the University of Göttingen.
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Seed bank composition and above-ground vegetation in response to grazing in sub-Mediterranean oak forests (NW Greece)
Chaideftou, E.; Thanos, C. A.; Bergmeier, E.; Kallimanis, A. S. & Dimopoulos, P. (2009)
Plant Ecology, 201(1) pp. 255-265. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-008-9548-1
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Details
- Authors
- Chaideftou, Evgenia; Thanos, Costas A.; Bergmeier, Erwin; Kallimanis, Athanasios S.; Dimopoulos, Panayotis
- Abstract
- We investigate the persistent soil seed bank composition and its relation to the above-ground flora of grazed and non-grazed sub-Mediterranean deciduous oak forests of NW Greece. Twenty-eight taxa were recorded in the soil seed bank and 83 taxa (70 taxa in plots of seed bank sampling) in the above-ground vegetation. The dominant tree species and many woodland species found in the above-ground vegetation were absent from the soil seed bank. Similarity between the soil seed bank and the above-ground vegetation decreased with grazing, and grazing led to a decrease of species richness in above-ground vegetation and soil seed bank. Beta diversity of vegetation among grazed and among non-grazed plots did not differ, but was significantly higher between grazed and non-grazed areas. Beta diversity of the soil seed bank declined with grazing. When applying classification tree and logistic regression analyses, non-grazed forest sites are clearly differentiated by the presence of Phillyrea latifolia, Euphorbia amygdaloides and Brachypodium sylvaticum. PCA ordination of above-ground species composition reflected a gradient from sites grazed by ruminants to non-grazed sites, but no clear structure was detected in the seed bank.
- Issue Date
- 2009
- Status
- published
- Publisher
- Springer
- Journal
- Plant Ecology
- ISSN
- 1573-5052; 1385-0237