Soil seed banks of cropland and rangeland on the Loess Plateau

In order to compare the relationship between soil seed banks of cropland and rangeland on the Loess Plateau, and to explore the agricultural production structure of the Loess Plateau, the present article studied the density and composition of soil seed banks in 0 to 10 cm soil layer under different utilization using germination experiment. The results showed that average density of soil seed for cropland, abandoned land and enclosure rangeland was 1 455 seedsm-2, 1 008 seedsm-2 and 5 044 seedsm-2, respectively, with a total of 7 species, 3 species and 12 species, respectively. Due to unreasonable usage of land resource, the density, diversity and richness of soil seed banks for abandoned land were the lowest with serious soil desertification. Enclosure rangeland had the highest soil seed density, diversity and richness which suggested that soil seed banks in a certain extent played an important role on the surface vegetation restoration and update. Therefore, the traditional agriculture structure of the Loess Plateau area with fragile ecological environment should be changed to increase grass nurture and enclosed time, which in turn increase the density, diversity and abundance of surface vegetation, and then improve the ecological environment.