Composition of vegetation and soil seed bank in low subtropical forests and their relationship

A permanent sample transect of plant communities was established on Dinghushan Mountain to study the relationship between the size of the vegetation composition above-ground and the soil seed bank. The results were as follows: 1) ninty-three woody species were present in the forests transect and of which 60 were trees and 33 shrubs; as well, 30 species of herbage appeared under the canopy and of which 12 were ferns; 2) thirty-six species of woody plants were found in the soil seed bank, including 11 tree species and 25 shrub species. The average woody seed density was 183 grains/m²; for shrubs the density was 162 grains/m² and for trees 21 grains/m². The number of seeds of shrubs was far more than that of trees. In addition, thirteen species of herbage were identified in soil seed bank samples including three species of fern and their average seed density was 215 grains/m²; 3) the pertinent comparison of species predominance between soil seed bank and above-ground vegetation was: herbage>shrub>tree. In the soil seed bank, most herbage seeds were pioneer species; seeds of middle succession species were dominant in trees and the seeds of pioneer species were dominant in shrubs; 4) to study the relationship between vegetation and soil seed bank, species in plant communities were divided into three groups by life forms. Result was that the Sorensen coefficient of shrub 0.54 > herbage 0.32 > tree 0.28. If we omit saplings according to DBH, the Sorensen coefficient for trees increases to 0.47. The following percentages of species were present both above ground and in the soil seed bank: tree 91%, shrub 65% and herbage 50%.