Unusually high‐quality soil seed banks in a Midwestern U.S. oak savanna region: variation with land use history, habitat restoration, and soil properties

Responses of soil seed bank and its above-ground vegetation to various reclamation patterns

Coastal land reclamation has become a primary strategy for alleviating conflicts between human development and land resource utilization. However, anthropogenic activities associated with land reclamation inevitably result in significant changes to coastal wetland ecosystems. Previous studies have mainly focused on the ecological consequences of land reclamation on above-ground vegetation, while overlooking the distinctions between different reclamation patterns and the critical role of soil seed bank in maintaining ecosystem stability. In this study, the responses of soil seed bank and vegetation to various reclamation patterns, as well as the factors influencing changes in seed bank characteristics, were analyzed in a natural coastal wetland (NCW), a reclaimed wetland with sea embankments constructed on native wetland (SEW), and another reclaimed wetland formed through land reclamation from the sea (LRW). These findings suggest that seed banks and their vegetation adopt different adaptation strategies under various reclamation patterns. In the NCW, the proportion of non-halophytes (1.39%), diversity, and density of the seed bank were at their lowest levels, whereas the species compositions derived from the seed bank and vegetation were very similar (similarity coefficient = 0.67). Conversely, the seed bank in the SEW demonstrated the highest species diversity, which differed significantly from the species composition of its above-ground vegetation (similarity coefficient = 0.21). However, the highest proportion of non-halophytes (36.60%), vegetation diversity, and seed bank density occurred in LRW. Furthermore, differences in seed bank characteristics under different reclamation patterns may be related to changes in soil salinity and plant reproductive strategies after reclamation. Adjusting reclamation patterns and restoring soil properties could potentially optimize the types of local plant species and their distribution in reclaimed areas.

Forest Resources Management and Sustainability: The Specific Case of European Union Countries

Forest land provides several environmental services and goods with significant implications for different socioeconomic and environmental dimensions. Forestry and its management are determinant activities for sustainable development, specifically in the current context of urgent mitigation of climate change. In this perspective, one objective of this research was to survey the main insights from the literature about the forest and management dimensions put together, highlighting the contributions of these activities to mitigate climate change. Another objective was to explore indicators related to forest management (land, employment, output, and net emissions) in order to obtain a forest sustainability index through factor analysis. As main insights from this study, we can quote that the literature survey pinpoints the most relevant factors framing forest management: soil characteristics, ecology, ecosystems, biodiversity, deforestation, climate change, socioeconomic frameworks, local knowledge, public policies, institutional context, and new technologies. Forest indicators reveal a strong relationship between forest land, employment and output, and a weaker relation with net emissions. We concluded that there is a need for stakeholders to explore and improve the interlinkage with climate change impact, specifically with regard to improving the relationships of forestry greenhouse gas emissions impacts with forest size and output.