Using soil seed banks to guide large-scale floodplain restoration in the Macquarie Marshes
Using soil seed banks to guide large-scale floodplain restoration in the Macquarie Marshes Conference Paper
16th Australian Rangeland Society Biennial Conference
- Author(s): Waters, C., Nairn, L., Melville, G. J.
- Published: 2010
- Publisher: Australian Rangeland Society
Abstract: This paper describes the regeneration potential of agricultural landscapes within a temporary wetland area of the Macquarie Marshes. In each of 49 sites, plant origin (native/exotic) and - diversity (number of species) from the soil seed bank and in-situ vegetation were used to assess potential differences in native plant regeneration for six vegetation communities (lignum, water couch, redgum, river cooba, grassland and cropping) and two land use histories (grazing and cropping). Seedling emergence counts from soil seed banks showed that cropping resulted in a significantly lower proportion of native species compared to other vegetation communities such as river cooba and native grasslands that retained some regeneration potential under grazing and limited clearing. These differences were mostly reflected in the in-situ vegetation. However, a high proportion of bare ground occurred in all cropping sites and vegetation communities suggesting that all may be susceptible to further weed invasion. We describe the implications of these results for the restoration of this wetland.