Soil seed bank techniques for restoring wetland vegetation diversity in Yeyahu Wetland, Beijing

In recent years, wetland restoration measures have created extensive concerns globally. The theory and practice of restoring wetland vegetation diversity in wetlands through soil seed banks is discussed in this paper. A comparative study on soil seed bank and species composition in Yeyahu Wetland, Beijing, was conducted in 2007. Species and quantities of seeds from 12 sample sites were counted and measured by the seed-germinating method. After germination, 27 species belonging to 16 families and 23 genera were recorded, with an average of 11.75 species per sample site, and total average density of 24831.0 individuals/m2. There were significant differences between the soil seed bank and vegetation in spring, summer and autumn, with similarity coefficients of 0.2620 ± 0.0868, 0.2580 ± 0.0778 and 0.1953 ± 0.0452, respectively. Also in 2008, by using the seed bank technique, vegetation diversity was restored in a degraded wetland near Maying River of Yeyahu Wetland through the processes of spot selection, topographic surveying, water level monitoring, and vegetation management. The results showed that in the restored regions, both species and diversity coefficients of vegetation observably increased: 73.68% of the hydrophytic species we discovered were transplanted from provenance regions; germination of seeds in the soil lasted until late September; and many species completed their life history and produced new seeds to renew the seed bank. In addition, the results suggested that seed bank technique not only increased richness and multiplicity of vegetation, but also provided food chains with animal diversity in wetlands.