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Vegetation regeneration on natural terrain landslides in Hong Kong: direct seeding of native species as a restoration tool
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  • Ying Ki Law,
  • Calvin Lee,
  • Chun Chiu Pang,
  • Billy Hau,
  • Jin Wu
Ying Ki Law
The University of Hong Kong

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Calvin Lee
University of Hong Kong
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Chun Chiu Pang
The Hong Kong Bird Watching Society
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Billy Hau
University of Hong Kong
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Jin Wu
University of Hong Kong
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Abstract

Landslides are common in tropical and subtropical regions with hilly terrains and heavy rainstorms, which cause significant economic, ecological, and social impacts. Natural forest succession is usually slow on landslide scars due to poor soil structure and the lack of seeds of woody plant seeds, and often comes with a higher risk of repeated landslide. Ecological forest restoration has recently been suggested as an effective alternative to restore the exposed landslide scars, however, a comprehensive study to identify effective landslide restoration strategies remains lacking, particularly associated with seed treatment methods and species selection. Here we evaluated the effectiveness of different seed coating treatments of both pioneer and later successional tree species of different seed sizes on seed germination in a one-year study on three landslides in Hong Kong. Our results show that bare seeds had germination rates of 17 to 67% across all selected species (n=7). Biochar-dominant seed coating formulation boosted an additional 9.33 (SE= 0.04) in seed germination rate, while the clay-dominant seed coating formulation did not show significant effect on germination. Our results also show that medium and large-seeded non-pioneer species have significantly higher germination rates than pioneer species. These results collectively suggest that direct seeding using a biochar seed coat is a manageable and useful method to enhance tree seed germination—an essential first step to restore the forests after landslide disturbances in Hong Kong, with potential to be extended to other humid tropical and subtropical forests.
10 Jan 2022Submitted to Land Degradation & Development
11 Jan 2022Submission Checks Completed
11 Jan 2022Assigned to Editor
12 Jan 2022Reviewer(s) Assigned
20 Feb 2022Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
29 Apr 20221st Revision Received
30 Apr 2022Submission Checks Completed
30 Apr 2022Assigned to Editor
19 Jun 2022Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
25 Jun 2022Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
06 Jul 20222nd Revision Received
07 Jul 2022Submission Checks Completed
07 Jul 2022Assigned to Editor
14 Aug 2022Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
28 Sep 2022Editorial Decision: Accept
15 Feb 2023Published in Land Degradation & Development volume 34 issue 3 on pages 751-762. 10.1002/ldr.4492