Dear colleague,

Yes, permanent seed banks created by some plant communities can be considered as a kind of biological inertia because some species can persist in the form of seeds in the soil even in the environmental conditions at the soil surface have changed and then, are not suitable for the growth of these species.

Soil seed banks have been also considered as a kind of "memory" of plant communities.

Sincerely Yours,

Thierry Dutoit

Dear colleague,

Yes, permanent seed banks created by some plant communities can be considered as a kind of biological inertia because some species can persist in the form of seeds in the soil even in the environmental conditions at the soil surface have changed and then, are not suitable for the growth of these species.

Soil seed banks have been also considered as a kind of "memory" of plant communities.

Sincerely Yours,

Thierry Dutoit

Considering that seeds are reproductive stages of plant development, their genetic code works as organic software containing a large number of information. This code is written in the DNA where the genes change chemically quickly under a large or slowly under restrict environmental conditions. Thinking about memory, this organic software change along the time and in some moment has to turn off to avoid delivering deleterious modifications to new generations. Preventing these possibilities there is the primary dormancy which maintains this software unchangeable for some period, but not forever. Discriminating all the mechanisms involved in these chemical reactions will require a hard work in time and space.

Thanks for the information from everyone! This is helpful for me.

I found little bit of works where biological inertia (or term "biological memory of plant communities") is applied to the seed bank. Are there any special scientific journals where I may found such works?