Accumulated soil seed bank of the invasive sand dropseed(Sporobolus cryptandrus) poses a challenge for its suppression

Török, Péter and Espinoza Ami, Francis David and Szél-Tóth, Katalin and Díaz Cando, Patricia and Guallichico Suntaxi, Luis Roberto and McIntosh-Buday, Andrea and Hábenczyus, Alida Anna and Törő-Szijgyártó, Viktória and Kovacsics-Vári, Gergely and Tölgyesi, Csaba and Tóthmérész, Béla and Sonkoly, Judit (2024) Accumulated soil seed bank of the invasive sand dropseed(Sporobolus cryptandrus) poses a challenge for its suppression. LAND DEGRADATION AND DEVELOPMENT, 35 (13). pp. 4105-4120. ISSN 1085-3278, ESSN: 1099-145X

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Abstract

Global warming, elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations and increased likeliness ofextreme drought and wildfires in many regions will likely favour C4 grass species. Tosupport future management actions, we explored the effect of the encroachment of aninvasive perennial C4 grass, Sporobolus cryptandrus on the composition of soil seedbanks in dry sand grasslands in Central Europe. In five mass-locality sites of the specieswe assessed the composition and vertical segmentation of the soil seed bank in 12 1-m2plots along an increasing cover of the invasive species. We found that the seed bankdiversity and density decreased with increasing sampling depth; the decrease in densitywas affected by the increasing S. cryptandrus cover. Neither the diversity nor the seedbank density of other species were affected by increasing S. cryptandrus cover but bothwere affected by the sampling site. Most of the studied seed bank characteristics wereaffected by the sampling depth, but none of them were affected by the increasing coverof S. cryptandrus. Increasing cover of S. cryptandrus in the vegetation was associatedwith an increasing proportion of S. cryptandrus seeds in the seed bank, and we found alow-density soil seed bank of the species even in plots with no S. cryptandrus cover. Ourfinding that S. cryptandrus forms a massive soil seed bank, together with the predicteddecrease in the precipitation of the summer months and increase in the frequency ofdroughts in the region, projects further rapid spread of the species.

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