SUBJECT

Ecology of soil seed banks

lecture

Doctoral

Faculty of Science

Doctoral School of Environmental Sciences

6

Semesters 1-4

Autumn/Spring semester

Introduces students to definitions and sampling methods of natural seed banks. Discusses seed longevity studies and further issues on seed (fruit) viability, and deals with soil seed bank types, and their classification. A second part of the course offers a comprehensive overview of the recent knowledge on the role and importance of natural seed banks in the dinamic processes of vegetation, e.g. succession, degradation, habitat restauration. At the end of the course seed bank databases, seed ecological databases and their applicability is demonstrated.

• Baskin, C. C. & Baskin, J. M. 1998. Seeds: ecology, biogeography, and evolution of dormancy and germination. Academic Press, San Diego.

• Csontos P. 2001. A természetes magbank kutatásának módszerei. Scientia Kiadó, Budapest.

• Csontos P. & Tamás J. 2003. Comparisons of soil seed bank classification systems. Seed Science Research 13(2): 101-111.

• Fenner, M. & Thompson, K. 2005. The ecology of seeds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

• Csontos P. 2007. Seed banks: ecological definitions and sampling considerations. Community Ecology 8(1): 75-85.

• Csontos P. 2010. A természetes magbank, valamint a hazai flóra magökológiai vizsgálatának új eredményei. Kanitzia 17: 77-110.