Potential of soil seed bank and ungulate-mediated endozoochory in old field restoration:

Soil seed bank plays a key role in old field restoration because it provides information about plant species that may regenerate (Hopfensperger 2007). Most studies on old field restoration have concentrated on floristic similarities between soil seed bank and standing vegetation (Török et al. 2018). However, investigating the effects of proximity to natural/old field edge (habitat fragmentation border) on soil seed bank could yield better recovery predictions. Proximity to natural/old field edge may favour recruitment of a different plant community than that found in the old field interior. This due to favorable abiotic (e.g., soil moisture) and biotic (e.g., seed dispersal) microenvironments created near the edge. On the other hand, ungulate-mediated endozoochory has been shown to potentially facilitate ecological restoration in degraded systems, given that ungulates disperse diaspores across different landscapes (Baltzinger et al. 2019). However, ungulate-mediated endozoochory dispersal in degraded old fields is affected by several factors that include availability of nearby natural perches that attract dispersers, structural vegetation complexities, presence of food especially fruits, and feeding regimes (Baltzinger et al. 2019)