Characteristics of soil seed banks in an artificial desert vegetation in the Hexi Corridor

The soil seed bank plays an important role in vegetation restoration. This research determined artificial vegetation seed bank of the Hexi Corridor. We conducted a field vegetation survey with fixed point soil sample collection and a seed germination experiment. Research characteristics of the composition of the soil seed bank in the artificial vegetation and the spatial distribution and species diversity were determined. The results showed that: 1) There were 9 species of plants in the soil seed bank that belonged to 3 families and 8 genera. The soil seed bank was simple. The family of the species were concentrated. The number of annual plants accounted for 89.53 % of all seed bank plants. 2) Seed bank density at 0 – 2 cm depth was 54.71 grains·m^–2, 2 – 5 cm was 58.00 grains·m^–2, and 5 – 10 cm was 132.86 grains·m^–2. At 0 – 5 cm, the lowest density of the soil seed bank occurred and at 0 – 5 cm it was the highest. 3) There were numerous common species in the soil seed bank and of ground plants. The similarity factor was 0.600 8. Medium or highly similar levels occurred with lower spatial heterogeneity. There were positive correlations between composition, quantity, and density of ground plants and seed bank. 4) There was a low diversity index for the different gradients in the seed bank. As the depth of the soil increased the trends in the Simpson and Shannon-Wiener index, and Pielou’s evenness index (E) showed consistency in the soil seed bank.