Soil seed bank formation during early revegetation after hydroseeding in reclaimed coal wastes

The soil seed bank is an important component of ecosystem resilience and represents a stock of regeneration potential in many plant assemblages; however, little is known about the initial development of seed bank during restoration. We characterized the size and composition of the soil seed bank in a reclaimed coal mine in Spain. For that, the initial seed bank of soil-forming material and cattle manure that was spread over it analyzed before hydroseeding. Later, the seed bank that developed in the two seasons (2.3 years) after hydroseeding was resampled, taking in consideration the distance to natural communities and topography. The seed bank increased from virtually nothing to 1813 seeds m−2 over the study period, and was composed of mainly native species, which were more abundant near seed sources in the adjacent landscape. Topography only influenced the size of the hydroseeded species seed bank, with four species comprising approximately 45% of the seed bank. There were also variations in seed bank species number and composition in the different areas of the same mine. These results emphasize the necessity of taking care when including foreign species in a hydroseeding mixture, and of considering seed bank development within each area of a site in management planning. Otherwise differences may condition the future vegetation recovery from the desired target, creating very different communities in very close proximity.