Restoration Potential of Invaded Abandoned Agricultural Fields: What Does the Seed Bank Tell Us? Running head: Seed bank contribution to rangeland restoration Natalie S. Haussmanna*, Christopher Delporta, Vincent Kakembob, Katlego K. Mashianea, Peter C. le Rouxc a Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield, 0028, South Africa b Geosciences Department, Nelson Mandela University, PO Box 77000, Port Elizabeth, 6031, South Africa c Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield, 0028, South Africa *Corresponding author: e-mail:
[email protected] Author contributions: NH, CD, KM, PLR, VK conceived and designed the research; CD, KM performed the fieldwork and experiments; PLR analyzed the data; NH, PLR, VK wrote and edited the manuscript 1 Abstract Soil seed banks can play an important role in the restoration of degraded ecosystems, especially where indigenous species are well represented in, and invasive species are largely absent from the seed bank. Here, we studied the potential contribution of the soil seed bank to the restoration of invaded, abandoned agricultural fields in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. We recorded the aboveground cover and belowground abundance of all vascular plant species from 120 quadrats that differ in cover of the extralimital woody invader, Pteronia incana. Our results show that higher cover of P. incana is associated with lower species richness, aboveground cover and belowground seed abundance. Furthermore, community similarity between the above- and belowground component was low, with the seed bank and standing vegetation having only 15 species in common and 49 species being recorded only from the seed bank.