ABSTRACT
The soil seed bank was studied in a seasonal semideciduous forest, in the domain of the Atlantic Forest, Southeastern Brazil (20o45 Latitude South, 42o55 Longitude West and altitude of 689.7 m). A total of 120 soil samples (20 x 15 cm and depth of 5 cm), without the litter layer, were taken at the end of the rainy season in ten sites differing in slope, aspect and topographic position. The soil samples were placed to germinate in trays under 11.5 and 60 % shade. The germinated seeds were classified as graminoids, herbaceous-lianas, shrub and arboreal groups. A total of 3,416 seeds germinated, being 30.2 % of graminoids, 29.2 % herbaceous-lianas, 17.5 % shrub and 23.1 % arboreal individuals. The shrub-arboreal individuals were distributed into 17 families, 25 genus and 31 species. Melastomataceae, Cecropiaceae and Piperaceae accounted for 31.8 %, 10.0 % and 8.8 %, respectively, of the total shrub-arboreal species germinated seeds, being Miconia cinnamomifolia and Leandra purpurascens the predominant species (59.3 % of the total germinated seeds). Pioneer species accounted for 61.3 % of the shrub-arboreal species and 88.5 % of the germinated seeds. There were no late secondary species. The average number of germinated seeds from all life habit and sites studied accounted for 949 seeds/m². The number of shrub-arboreal species and germinated seeds differed significantly by the Kruskal-Wallis test (P ≤ 0.05) between sites. The dominance of pioneer species in the soil seed bank of the studied forest indicates that the buried seeds can be considered satisfactory for natural regeneration in treefall gaps and clearcut areas. Therefore, in order to maintain a continuous forest succession, when there is predominance of initial and late secondary species, the soil seed bank is not satisfactory. In this situation, the management of the seedlings stock is required to sustain the natural regeneration.
Keywords:
soil seed bank; floristic composition; forest fragment; secondary forest