Abstract
Composition and seasonal patterns of the fern spore bank were compared to the surface vegetation of grasslands on dolomite rock in Hungary. Viability and potential dormancy of spores were tested through storage experiments. Although Asplenium ruta-muraria L. was the only species found at the study sites, five others, probably originating from air-borne spores from nearby areas, emerged from the soil samples. Considerable seasonal variability was detected in the number of prothallia emerging from soil samples from different sampling dates, with a peak after spore dispersal. The increased number of emerging prothallia after 1 year of storage suggests that a part of the spores stored in the soil samples were presumably dormant. Investigations on the dormancy of fern spores might be of great interest, especially in species adapted to seasonally unfavourable habitats.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Dr. István Pintér for providing some facilities to the study and for kindly helping us in problematic questions and to Prof. Dr. Jakob Schneller for reading, correcting and commenting the manuscript. Three anonymous referees are gratefully acknowledged for their valuable comments on the manuscript.
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Hock, Z., Szövényi, P. & Tóth, Z. Seasonal variation in the spore bank of ferns in grasslands on dolomite rock. Plant Ecol 187, 289–296 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-006-9142-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-006-9142-3