General Survey of Soil Seed Bank in China

Soil seed bank refers to the sum of upper litter decay and all survival seeds in the soil. It plays a unique role in restoring the surface vegetation and protecting biodiversity. Chinese scholars have carried out extensive researches on the soil seed bank, and have obtained considerable achievements. On the basis of reading extensive literature, this paper summarized the current research results and found that the research contents of soil seed bank in China mainly involve the following aspects: (i) research method of soil seed bank; (ii) classification system of soil seed bank; (iii) spatial pattern of soil seed bank; (iv) relationship between soil seed bank and surface vegetation; (v) dynamic characteristic and seedling replanting of soil seed bank; (vi) application of soil seed bank in vegetation restoration. On the basis of the above summary, it came up with existing problems and future research direction of China’s soil seed bank from system construction, field observation, disciplinary combination, interference factors, and community succession.