Soil seed bank of the waste landfills in South Korea

• Published in: Plant and soil Vol. 271; no. 1-2; pp. 109 - 121
• Main Authors: Kim, K.D, Lee, E.J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer 01.04.2005; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Age; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Applied sciences; Banks; Biological and medical sciences; buried seeds; Chenopodium; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Digitaria; Disturbance; ecological succession; Environmental degradation: ecosystems survey and restoration; Exact sciences and technology; Forest soils; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Landfills; Moisture content; Organic matter; Organic soils; Planting density; Plants; Pollution; Reclamation; Seed banks; Seedlings; Seeds; Soil; soil chemical properties; Soil density; Soil moisture; Soil organic matter; soil physical properties; Soil seed banks; Soils; solid wastes; Species composition; Urban and domestic wastes; Vegetation; Waste disposal sites; Wastes; South Korea; Asia; Korea; Korea, Rep., Seoul; Korea, Rep; succession; Waste dumping; Nonfarm land; waste landfills; Horticulture; canonical correspondence analysis; Landfills; Urban waste; Ecology; Environmental engineering; Soils; South Korea; Correspondence analysis; Seed bank; Ecological recovery; Soil plant relation; soil seed bank; Anthroposols; restoration
• ISSN: 0032-079X; 1573-5036
• DOI: 10.1007/s11104-004-2159-2

The restoration of urban landfill is a topic of growing interest in reclamation ecology as the acreage of abandoned sites near cities increases. The goals of this study were to assess the ecological status of waste landfills and to elucidate the role of seed banks in the establishment of vegetation at these sites. The study sites were located at five landfills around Seoul and Kyongki Province. On average, soils were sampled on 20 plots per landfill in 2001 to record species composition and to estimate the number of seeds in the soil. Soil seed bank vegetation and the individual number of seedlings that germinated were recorded using the seedling emergence method. Relative density per species was calculated from the number of individual seedlings. We conducted canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) using the program CANOCO to survey the relationships between 23 environmental variables and plant importance values. Environmental variables included categorical and numerical variables (landfill age, landfill size, distance from landfill edge, human disturbance level, slope, periodic management level) and soil physico-chemical variables (bulk density, soil moisture content, organic matter content, total N, available P, K, Na, Ca, Mg, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn). The mean seedling density per m2 differed significantly among sites (P < 0.05). As landfill age increased, the mean seedling density per m2 decreased. The mean seedling density of the Sangpaedong landfill, which was less than 1 year old, was higher than that found in 6- and 7-year-old landfills. The Sangpaedong landfill mainly contained seeds of Chenopodium album L. and Digitaria ciliaris (L.) SCOP. With regard to early vegetative colonization in landfills, our results highlighted the importance of seed banks occurring in cover soils. Cover soils, derived from various sources, will determine landfill landscapes because of different seed banks present in them. The first axis of the CCA was correlated with landfill age, Na, and human disturbance level, while the second axis was correlated with landfill size, slope, periodic management level, Zn, total N, and organic matter content. Understanding seed banks in landfill cover soils is important, therefore, for proper landfill management and restoration.