Soil seed bank in selected patches of vegetation in the beech forest of Beskid Śląski (Southern Poland)

The aim of this study was to examine the size and composition of soil seed bank in the beech forest of Beskid Śląski (southern Poland). The study was conducted in autumn 2009 on two patches of vegetation. The applied method of research was seedling germination from the soil samples. The soil was sampled to the depth of 10 cm using a 5 cm diameter cylinder. The observation of the seedling's growth was conducted in laboratory conditions for 5 months. The size of the soil seed bank was estimated at 592 seeds/m2 (16 species) for Dentario glandulosae-Fagetum community and 2030 seeds/m2 (9 species) for Luzulo nemorosae-Fagetum comunnity. Dominant species in the seed bank was Juncus sp. and Luzula luzuloides. In addition, the composition of the seed bank and the above-ground vegetation did not show any significant similarities and a greater number of seeds were located in the upper 5cm layer of soil.