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Research of the soil seed bank in grassland habitats

Soil seed banks, including dormant and non-dormant seeds, present on the soil surface and in the soil, play an important role in population dynamics and diversity maintenance in almost all ecosystems throughout the world. Soil seed banks, as nature-based solutions, can provide an important basis for the conservation and restoration of several habitat types. The vast majority of the published seed bank studies usually examined only the uppermost soil layers, therefore the knowledge on the depth distribution, species composition and density of seed banks as well as the ecological significance of deeply buried seeds is limited. In order to address these knowledge gaps, our research aims to examine the soil seed bank in grassland habitats along a detailed vertical gradient extending to greater soil depths than those considered in previous studies.