Soil seed bank

<p>The soil seed bank is the natural storage of <a href="/facts/Seed/a4xGSLxJ">seeds</a>, often dormant, within the <a href="/facts/Soil/5Ddpr3QM">soil</a> of most <a href="/facts/Ecosystem/kVE8mSmR">ecosystems</a>.  The study of soil seed banks started in 1859 when <a href="/facts/Charles_Darwin/uwDLGItY">Charles Darwin</a> observed the emergence of seedlings using soil samples from the bottom of a lake. The first scientific paper on the subject was published in 1882 and reported on the occurrence of seeds at different soil depths.  Weed seed banks have been studied intensely in <a href="/facts/Agricultural_science/NYg9URrT">agricultural science</a> because of their important economic impacts; other fields interested in soil seed banks include <a href="/facts/Silviculture/ERfNCtHu">forest regeneration</a> and <a href="/facts/Restoration_ecology/gJ6wT9Gg">restoration ecology</a>.
</p><p><a href="/facts/Henry_David_Thoreau/pVoPIsK3">Henry David Thoreau</a> wrote that the contemporary popular belief explaining the <a href="/facts/Secondary_succession/yXPLtgkN">succession</a> of a logged forest, specifically to trees of a dissimilar species to the trees cut down, was that seeds either <a href="/facts/Spontaneous_generation/bUVSjNam">spontaneously generated</a> in the soil, or sprouted after lying dormant for centuries. However, he dismissed this idea, noting that heavy nuts unsuited for distribution by wind were distributed instead by animals.
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Soil seed bank open-in-new

Soil seed bank