Soil seed bank dynamics and regeneration potentials in a degraded forest reserve

Abstract

Prolonged degradation of a forest has the tendency to reduce its potentials for regeneration, most especially when the degradation impact has dovetailed to the soil level. This study investigated soil seed bank status of Omo forest reserve in Ogun state through seedling emergence in randomly sampled soil at 0-10, 10-20 and 20-30 cm depths. One kilogramme of air-dried soil samples (approximately 1.3 L) of each depth were placed in separate plastic trays, watered and observed for seedling emergence within 20 weeks. Emerged wildlings were identified by species, counted and removed. Data were analysed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The results showed that seed bank varied significantly (p<0.05) both in distribution and abundance across seasons and depths, with 0 to 20 cm soil depth holding up to 89% of seeds. The study showed that the soil of the enumerated Forest Reserve still supports some of the most diverse and productive plant communities despite anthropogenic activities. Therefore, stringent conservative management measures are recommended to forestall forest degradation and from eroding the soil of the Forest Reserve.