Factors Driving Seed Bank Diversity in Wetlands of a Large River Floodplain

SCHNEIDER, BERENICE; CAMPANA, MIRTA ; FLORENCIA ZILLI ; FERNÁNDEZ, FLORENCIA FACELLI

WETLANDS

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2020 vol. 40 p. 2275 - 2286

0277-5212

Soil seed banks serve as reservoirs of taxonomic and genetic diversity and can buffer the effect of perturbations on plantcommunities, and thus are critical for community resilience. We studied the relationship of seed bank abundance and richnesswith different hydrological attributes, evaluated beta diversity patterns among wetlands in the Middle Paraná River floodplain,and experimentally explored soil seed bank germination after a drought period. Seed abundance was positively related to droughtintensity and, along with richness, negatively related to drought and flood frequency. Turnover and balanced variation inabundance greatly contributed to the total beta diversity probably associated with the environmental heterogeneity of thefloodplain; nestedness had a lower contribution probably associated with different dispersal abilities of species. Germinationbehavior varied between rooted and free-floating plants. In conclusion, the soil seed banks studied are highly variable amonghabitats; drought and flood frequency, and drought intensity are related with the seed banks abundance and richness; and thegermination responses after a drought phase differ among broad ecological groups of wetland plants.