Komarova T.A., Terekhina N.V., Orekhova T.P.
Botanicheskii zhurnal 2021; 106(3): 255-271
The materials of long-term research of soil seed banks at the early, middle, and late stages of reforestation successions after fires in broadleaved-Korean-pine forests of the Southern Sikhote-Alin mountains were summarized. Changes in the species composition, abundance, and vertical distribution of germinating seeds in the litter and soil, from an annual burnt site to an overmature broadleaved-Korean-pine forest more than 350 years old, were traced. A regular decrease in the composition and number of germinating seeds from early to late stages of post-fire reforestation successions and a sharp decrease in buried dormant seeds in the overmature forest have been established. Forest fires are considered as a kind of “signal” for activating dormant seeds in the soil.
