Soil seed bank of sand grasslands subjected to sand dropseed (Sporobolus cryptandrus) invasion
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In Hungary, the open sand grasslands experience particularly high pressures of invasion. The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of the C4 invasive grass Sporobolus cryptandrus on the composition and diversity of soil seed banks in dry sand grasslands of Hungary in Central Europe. It was sampled five mass-localities of the species in the Nyírség and Kiskunság region; 1-m2-sized plots were sampled along an increasing cover of the species. Overall, more than 19,000 seedlings were emerged from the soil samples, out of these more than 15,000 were seedlings of Sporobolus. Beside of Sporobolus seeds, it was found in total 87 other species. The density and diversity of seed banks was highly affected by the site, but most of the seed bank characteristics were not affected by the increasing cover of Sporobolus. It was also detected that seed bank density and the density of Sporobolus seeds were the highest in the upper 2.5 cm soil layers. It was concluded that the species has the capacity of forming a persistent soil seed bank due to its high-density, which strongly support its local establishment and persistence.