Seasonal dynamics and characteristics of the spatial distribution of a soil seed bank of a Polygonum viviparum meadow in an alpine area in the Tianzhu Region

The seasonal dynamics and characteristics of the spatial distribution of a soil seed bank of a Polygonum viviparum meadow in an alpine area in the Tianzhu region were studied through a field investigation and seed germination tests. The results indicated that for the soil seed bank during the turning green period, the density of average unit volume (length 1.0 m × width 1.0 m × height 0.1 m) is 3 479; whilst during the yellowing period,the density of average unit volume (1.0 m × 1.0 m × 0.1 m) was 3 871. The total numbers for the soil seed bank in the yellowing period were higher than in the turning green period, with a significant difference at the 0.05 level. The soil seed density at 0 – 5 cm was significantly higher than that at 5 – 10 cm in both the turning green and yellowing periods, with a significant differences (P < 0.05). However, there were no significant differences in the same soil seed density at different sampling times. The richness, simpson, shannon-wiener, and evenness indexes of the soil seed bank in the turning green period were all higher than those in the yellowing periods, except for, richness. The difference between the simpson, shannon-wiener, and evenness indexes was not significant. The difference between the richness was at the 0.05 level; The characteristics of the life forms present in a Polygonum viviparum meadow in the soil seed bank was: the sample from the turning green period was made up of Hemicryptophytes, Cryptophytes and Therophytes, whilst sample from the yellowing periods was made up of Hemicryptophytes and Cryptophytes; The similarity of the species composition between the soil seed bank and aboveground vegetation of a Polygonum viviparum meadow in an alpine area in Tianzhu was low, The jaccard similarity index and Sørenson similarity index of the turning green period was lower than those of the yellowing periods.