Effects of fenced seed production areas and restoration treatments on the size and composition of the native grass seedbanks in moderately degraded rangelands in semiarid Australia
Judith M. Bean A B G , Gavin J. Melville A , Ronald B. Hacker A C , Sharon Anderson A D , Alicia Whittington A E and Stephen P. Clipperton A FA NSW Department of Primary Industries, Trangie Agricultural Research Centre, PMB 19, Trangie, NSW 2823, Australia.
B Present address: PO Box 578, Gunnedah, NSW 2380, Australia.
C Present address: Tenambit, NSW 2323, Australia.
D Present address: 48 Clover Ridge Road, Millthorpe, NSW 2798, Australia.
E Present address: Department of National Parks and Wildlife, Karratha, WA 6714, Australia.
F Present address: Mineral Resources, NSW Trade and Investment, Locked Bag 21, Orange, NSW 2800, Australia.
G Corresponding author. Email: lund@hwy.com.au
The Rangeland Journal 38(1) 47-56 https://doi.org/10.1071/RJ15065
Submitted: 15 July 2015 Accepted: 21 January 2016 Published: 11 March 2016
Abstract
Seed production areas containing populations of native grasses were fenced on topographically high areas at two study sites in the semiarid rangelands of north-west New South Wales, Australia. The surrounding slopes were initially almost bare of pastorally preferred grasses. Three restoration treatments (control, mechanical pitting, and contour-aligned branch piles) were established on these surrounding slopes and the size and composition of the native grass seedbanks determined. A positive influence of the seed production areas mostly occurred within 15 m of the fence and was probably insignificant beyond 33 m at both sites. On a hard-setting red earth site, the size of the native grass seedbank in all three treatments increased over 2 years with the greatest increase under the piles of branches and smaller increases in the pitting and control treatments. The piles of branches preferentially incorporated seed of the pastorally preferred species Monachather paradoxus Steud into the seedbank whereas pits preferentially incorporated seed of the pastorally unpreferred species Aristida jerichoensis (Domin) Henrad. Evidence generally pointed to incoming seed rain rather than the seedbank as the main source of new seedlings. On a medium-textured lithosol site neither the pits nor the branches treatment was effective in enhancing either the size or composition of the seedbank; in fact the piles of branches resulted in a decrease in its size.
Additional keywords: brush piles, germination, pits, seed production areas.
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