IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v9y2017i10p1837-d114740.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Responses of Soil Seed Bank and Vegetation to the Increasing Intensity of Human Disturbance in a Semi-Arid Region of Northern China

Author

Listed:
  • Cui Li

    (Research and Development Center for Grass and Environment, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China)

  • Bo Xiao

    (Department of Soil and Water Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China)

  • Qinghai Wang

    (Research and Development Center for Grass and Environment, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China)

  • Ruilun Zheng

    (Research and Development Center for Grass and Environment, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China)

  • Juying Wu

    (Research and Development Center for Grass and Environment, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China)

Abstract

To provide more insights into the responses of the soil seed bank and vegetation to human disturbance intensity, we selected four land use types, including: native grassland (no human disturbance), abandoned artificial grassland (light human disturbance), artificial grassland (moderate human disturbance), and farmland (severe human disturbance) in a semi-arid climate of northern China. The species composition and density of the soil seed bank were measured, as well as the species composition and amount of vegetation. The native grassland had a significantly higher soil seed density and species richness than the other land use types. Moreover, the common species both in the soil seed bank and vegetation between the native grassland and other land use types gradually decreased as disturbance intensity increased. The abandoned artificial grassland and artificial grassland still had abundant soil seed banks according to their seed density (≥28.2% of the native grassland) and species richness (≥70.0% of the native grassland) to restore the vegetation. Conversely, it was hard to restore the vegetation on the farmland due to its low soil seed density (10.0% of the native grassland) and species richness (40.0% of the native grassland). In conclusion, human disturbance would generate significant negative effects on the soil seed bank in desertified regions in a semi-arid climate; however, the soil seed bank in land use types with light/moderate disturbance are more adapted to vegetation restoration compared with land use types with severe disturbance in a semi-arid region.

Suggested Citation

  • Cui Li & Bo Xiao & Qinghai Wang & Ruilun Zheng & Juying Wu, 2017. "Responses of Soil Seed Bank and Vegetation to the Increasing Intensity of Human Disturbance in a Semi-Arid Region of Northern China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-13, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:10:p:1837-:d:114740
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/10/1837/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/10/1837/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jun Pei & Wei Yang & Yangpeng Cai & Yujun Yi & Xiaoxiao Li, 2018. "Relationship between Vegetation and Environment in an Arid-Hot Valley in Southwestern China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-14, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:10:p:1837-:d:114740. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.