Contribution of the soil SEED bank to the recovery of a Cytisus oromediterraneus shrubland after fuel reduction treatments

The field study revealed no differences between treatments in relation to total vegetation cover, broom cover or grass cover. However, forbs cover was significantly higher in the prescribed burning treatment that is related with the higher density of seedlings of these species measured in the greenhouse experiment. C. oromediterraneus regenerated strongly via sprouting, being the seed germination rate in the field very low. That suggests that the soil seed bank makes little contribution to recovery of this species after fuel reduction treatments, and the same was observed for the remaining plant community.