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- Title
Effets d'une crue sur la banque de semences du sol des habitats riverains dans les Alpes du Sud, France.
- Authors
HUC, Stéphanie; SAATKAMP, Arne; JACOB, Frédérick; ABDULHAK, Sylvain
- Abstract
Soil seed banks play a pivotal role in maintaining the diversity of riverine plant communities. However, large floods with a thrust of materials can strongly alter seed bank. To quantify this effect, we studied the differences in floristic composition and species diversity of seed bank before and after floods of an alpine river at the edge of the Mediterranean region : the Durance. Due to construction works on a hydroelectric plant upslope in the Durance valley, the operator released significant amounts of water generating controlled floods. In order to measure the effect on the seed bank of the soil, we collected 30 soil samples from four sites including a control site without flooding. Samples were cultivated in a non-heated greenhouse while maintaining soil stratification. Germination was monitored during three consecutive years. Statistical analyses highlight the effect of the flood on the abundance and the specific composition of the soil seed bank. Analysis of variance showed a marked flood effect. Species richness decreased sharply after flooding and then increased back after one year. Dissimilarity in community composition before and after flood appeared with new species, typical of the different abiotic conditions of the Durance River watershed. This study underlines the potential of the seed bank of different depths of soil to restore vegetation after floods. Interestingly, our study also revealed the presence of seeds of a rare species, Centaurium favargeri, in the seed bank of the soil in two sites, where it was historically present but extinct nowadays. Comparing the established vegetation with the soil seed bank showed a great dissimilarity, with an important diversity of species in the soil seed bank that did not appear in the established vegetation pinpointing the role of environmental factors for germination and establishment.
- Publication
Ecologia Mediterranea, 2019, Vol 45, Issue 1, p45
- ISSN
0153-8756
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3406/ecmed.2019.2074