Question: Are the seed banks of an isolated subtropical oceanic island capable of naturally regenerating vegetation either with species of the historical forest community or with the existing grassland community after severe damage to the vegetation by goats?
Location: Nakoudojima Island, Bonin Archipelago (Ogasawara Shoto), Japan.
Methods: Soil samples were collected at 0–5 cm and 5–10 cm depths from seven plots in forests, grasslands, artificially matted areas and bare land. Soil seed banks were assessed using the seedling emergence method followed by the hand-sorting of ungerminated seeds. We determined the size and composition of the seed banks in upper soil layers of plots and compared the seed banks to the standing vegetation.
Results: A total of 12 220 seedlings belonging to 42 species from 20 families germinated. Total mean seed density (0–5 cm depth) was low in all plots within forest, grassland, and heavily degraded vegetation types (34.7 ± 8.6 to 693.5 ± 123.6, 58.6 ± 7.8 to107.1 ± 10.0, and 1.1 ± 0.5 to 7.2 ± 2.3 seeds/m2, respectively). Forbs and graminoids dominated the seed banks of grassland and forest plots including Cyperus brevifolius, Gnaphalium pensylvanicum, Oxalis corniculata and Solanum nigrum, and these alien species comprised 90% of the density of the seed bank. There was little correlation between seed banks and standing vegetation of the island (Sørensen similarity coefficient values 0.26 to 0.45).
Conclusions: If natural regeneration occurs from the seed bank of the island, future vegetation will not move toward the original forest community, because the seed bank is dominated by non-native herbaceous grassland species. Though isolated, a few forest remnants with low species richness could be an important source for the natural re-establishment of forest on the island; however, seed availability may be limited by either poor dispersal or pollination so that woody species will probably recover very slowly on this goat-impacted island.
Nomenclature: Shimizu (2003a); Toyoda (2003).
