Surface and Buried Seed Banks from Krakatau, Indonesia: Implications for the Sterilization Hypothesis

Germination trials were carried out on surface and buried soil samples from the Krakatau islands, with the aim of characterizing the nature and variability of the short-term seed bank and the potential significance of long-term subsurface seed storage. Thirty-six species of seed plants representing the Krakatau flora germinated from the samples. The topsoil samples yielded the largest number of seedlings and species, and had a faster pace of germination. These samples were found to be locally similar to each other but disharmonic with the extant vegetation. Seeds germinated both from samples buried by land crabs and from soils buried by layers of volcanic ash deposited ca 1930-33 and 1952-53. Eleven species of seed plants germinated from four samples buried ca 1930-33, indicating that these seeds survived burial by volcanic ash for ca 60 years.