tio

a r t i c l e i n f o biodiversity have been a focus in community ecology (Connell,1978; MacArthur andWilson, 1967). Plant ecologists proposed three main processes or filters responsible for community assembly: (i) biogeographical constraints, e.g. due to limited dispersal, (ii) habitat regional species pool. At the local scale dispersal, habitat require-ments and biotic interactions determine species diversity (Belyea and Lancaster, 1999), while at the patch scale biotic interactions at the neighbourhood level are most important (Lortie et al., 2004). The composition and the dynamics of soil seed banks play a crucial role in the structure of plant populations and communities (Bekker et al., 1998). Seed banks are reserves of viable non-germi-nated seeds in the soil or at the soil surface (Thompson and Grime