Soil seed banks in Mediterranean Aleppo pine forests: the effect of heat, cover and ash on seedling emergence

1 East Mediterranean Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) forests are subjected to peri-odic stand-replacing fires. We simulated two of the eects of fire on the germinable soil seed bank in four pine stands on Mt. Carmel, Israel, that diered in their post-fire ages. Soil samples were heated to 100 C, or covered by pine ash. Vermiculite was used to simulate litter cover. 2 Heat exposure increased overall seedling density, richness and taxon diversity in all stands, but density of annual taxa (e.g. grasses and legumes) were not clearly aected. 3 Ash cover dramatically decreased germination of all taxa and highest germina-tion was achieved with heating and no cover. Vermiculite cover resulted in inter-mediate germination levels. 4 The combined eect of heat exposure and ash cover, simulating a post-fire situa-tion under a canopy of pine, reduced the germination level of all taxa in the soil seed bank. However, it also creates conditions that facilitate the establishment of pine seedlings from the canopy stored seed bank