The potential of soil seed banks for revegetation of bogs in SW Finland after long-term aerial pollution

We studied a soil seed bank composition using the germination method in thr ee clearly polluted bogs, and in one bog farther away from the pollution so urce, in SW Finland. Total number of seedlings that emerged from the surfac e (0-5 cm deep) soil samples was significantly smaller in the farthest site (5.9 km, 939 seedlings m(-2)) as compared with sites situated 2.1 or 3.2 k m (2 882 and 3 687 seedlings m(-2), respectively) from the pollution source . The most common taxa in the seed banks were Calluna vulgaris and Betula s pp. Only 18%-31% of the spermatophyte species were common to both seed bank and vegetation. The monodominance of Calluna was smallest, and the number of emergent seedlings of other mire species was highest in the farthest sit e. The high numbers of emergent seedlings show that seeds of some species c an persist viable in the soil in polluted bogs.