The impact of Sorbaria sorbifolia invasions on soil seed banks in the southern taiga of Eurasia

doi:10.3832/ifor4791-019

The impact of Sorbaria sorbifolia invasions on soil seed banks in the southern taiga of Eurasia

Yuliya A Lipikhina⁽¹⁾ , Natalya V Zolotareva⁽¹⁾, Elena N Podgaevskaya⁽¹⁾, Olga A Kiseleva⁽²⁾, Denis V Veselkin⁽¹⁾

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 19, Issue 4, Pages 276-282 (2026)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor4791-019
Published: Jul 27, 2026 - Copyright © 2026 SISEF

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Geo-mapping

This study aimed to assess how the invasion of the shrub Sorbaria sorbifolia affects the soil seed bank in the urban forests of Ekaterinburg (Middle Urals, Russia). We compared species composition and abundance in the above-ground vegetation and seed banks across three forest vegetation types: those dominated by the invasive shrub S. sorbifolia, those dominated by the native shrub Rubus idaeus, and those without either species. In the presence of S. sorbifolia, the total cover of plants in the herb-dwarf shrub layer decreased by two orders of magnitude, the species richness decreased by 4-6 times, and the number of above-ground vegetation species decreased by 3-4 times. The species composition of the seed banks differed qualitatively from that of the above-ground vegetation and showed little relationship with the different vegetation types. While the species composition and richness of the seed bank remained unaltered by the S. sorbifolia invasion, its size was significantly decreased by 2.0-2.4 times. The ability to negatively affect the abundance of soil seed banks demonstrates that S. sorbifolia can be reasonably categorized as a transformer species. Therefore, this invasive plant requires special attention, as its further dispersal could have major consequences for native vegetation.

Keywords

Alien Plants, Invasive Plants, Biodiversity, Urbanized Forests, Clonal Plants, Above-ground Vegetation, Seed Bank, Sorbaria sorbifolia

Authors’ address

(1)

0000-0003-2908-5741
0000-0003-1895-4681
0000-0003-2355-5781
0000-0002-2902-2903
Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, UB RAS, Ekaterinburg (Russian Federation)

(2)

0000-0002-8619-6416
Ural Federal Agrarian Scientific Research Center, UB RAS, Ekaterinburg (Russian Federation)

Corresponding author

Yuliya A Lipikhina
julietta23111@mail.ru

Citation

Lipikhina YA, Zolotareva NV, Podgaevskaya EN, Kiseleva OA, Veselkin DV (2026). The impact of Sorbaria sorbifolia invasions on soil seed banks in the southern taiga of Eurasia. iForest 19: 276-282. - doi: 10.3832/ifor4791-019

Academic Editor

Michele Carbognani

Paper history

Received: Jan 09, 2025
Accepted: Jan 03, 2026

First online: Jul 27, 2026
Publication Date: Aug 31, 2026
Publication Time: 6.83 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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