Relationship between soil seed bank and forest restoration techniques on
areas around bauxite mining environment
Abstract
The soil seed bank is one of the most important ecological indicators to
evaluate and monitor the ecological restoration process of plant
communities. We aimed to evaluate the influence of ecological
restoration techniques on the plant community diversity and composition
and functional group composition of the soil seed bank in two bauxite
mining areas under compensatory restoration, Southeast Brazil. 30 soil
samples were collected in each area (Area_A – Forest restoration by
planting seedlings and nucleation techniques and Area_B – just
restoration by planting seedlings). The samples were transported to a
shade house and evaluated for six months, where germinated individuals
were counted and identified weekly. The results indicated that the soil
seed banks of the two areas are floristically similar (with a
predominance of pioneer, herbaceous and native origin species), which
show a higher natural regeneration potential. However, the higher
species richness and abundance of zoochoric individuals in Area_A
demonstrate that nucleation techniques, such as topsoil transposition
and direct seeding were efficient to increase the recovery potential
re-establishment. In the early successional stages, restoration
techniques are more determinant in the functional group composition than
in the floristic composition of the soil seed bank.