Seedling Presence and Growth Pattern of Soil Seed Bank Represents Vegetation Changes after Warming

The objective of this study is to estimate the response of soil seed bank under four different temperatures, mainly focused on germination and growth. We sampled soils at six locations of an alpine grassland, Mt Soeback and an alpine swamp, Mt Daeam, Korea. The soils were divided quarterly and then are allocated to four chambers with each four different temperatures (day/night; 20/10, 25/15, 30/20 and 35/25℃). The seedlings from soil seed bank were checked out by seedling emergence method. The mean species number per trays, the numbers of germinated seedlings, aboveground biomass, and belowground biomass were compared with multivariate analysis of general linear model of SPSS. The dominance of species was determined based on individual number and frequency recorded. All germinated number was 1,414. The mean species number germinated at grassland soils showed significant difference but that of swamp soils did not show significant difference. The mean aboveground biomass of both grassland and swamp soils showed significant differences at 35/25℃. The aboveground biomass of Potentilla fragarioides var. major from soils of an alpine grassland, Mt Soeback was different significantly at all four temperature treatments. The results can show vegetation changes generated from the soil seed bank by warming.