African Journal of Wood Science and Forestry

African Journal of Wood Science and Forestry Vol. 1 (3), pp. 063-069, October, 2013. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Soil seed banks of a rangeland area White Nile State, Sudan

A. K. Elsafori¹*, A. N. Guma^,a² and M. A. El Nour³

¹College of Forestry and Range Science, Sudan University of Science and Technology, P. O. Box 6146, Post Code 11113, Khartoum, Sudan.

²Faculty of Education, University of Khartoum, Sudan.

³Faculty of Forestry, University of Khartoum, Sudan.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected].

Accepted 10 March, 2013

Abstract

Three soil depths (0 to 5, 5 to 10 and 10 to 15 cm) were chosen at the study area and the soil seed bank was analyzed for the number of live and dead seeds for each of them. The analysis revealed the following: The seed bank density was higher in the upper soil depths (0 to 5 and 5 to 10 cm) as compared to the lower ones (10 to 15 cm). It was found that the seed density had decreased with increasing depth. The live seed density ranged from 1015 to 5371 seeds/m², whereas that of the dead seeds ranged from 3215 to 6957 seeds/m². The dominant plant species to which the live seeds belonged were grasses including Schoenefeldia gracilis, Brachiaria spp., Dactyloctenium aegyptium and Aristida spp. The dominant species to which the dead seeds belonged were mixed life- forms including Panicum turgidum, Euphorbia aegyptiaca and Cyperus rotundus.

Key words: Seed bank, density, species composition, semi-arid environments, rainfall variability, dispersal, viable seeds and dead seeds.