Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Methodological And Validation Study Of Seed Reserves In Desert Soils, David W. Goodall, Stuart Childs, Herman Wiebe

Memorandum

The development of a method for separating seeds from desert soils, and enumerating them, is described.

In the Great Basin desert, species differed greatly in their depth distribution, some having a peak at or just below the surface, while others were still abundant below 5 cm. Much higher seed densities were found beneath the canopies of shrubs and of tussock grasses than in the inter-spaces; no consistent differences were found, however, associated with the species of the canopy plant, or with distance from its center.

Tentative estimates are given of the seed population in the four validation sites in Curlew …