Seed Populations in Some Natural Australian Topsoils

The numbers and types of seeds in topsoils of several South Australian vegetation types were tabulated by microscopic examination of soil samples. Isolation of organic matter by flotation on a dense solution followed by examination under 8x power gave excellent recovery of all seeds present, even of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology (Durham) 1967, Vol.48 (1), p.153-155
Main Authors: Barbour, M. G., Lange, R. T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural soils
Desert soils
Flora
Forest soils
Mallees
Plants
Seeds
Soil samples
Topsoil
Vegetation structure
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Summary:The numbers and types of seeds in topsoils of several South Australian vegetation types were tabulated by microscopic examination of soil samples. Isolation of organic matter by flotation on a dense solution followed by examination under 8x power gave excellent recovery of all seeds present, even of those as small as 1 mm. Relatively small sample volumes (50 cm³) appear sufficient to yield high frequencies for many seeds. On the other hand, seed frequencies of many of the dominant species were very low, even with much larger sample volumes.
ISSN:0012-9658
1939-9170
DOI:10.2307/1933427