Unusually high‐quality soil seed banks in a Midwestern U.S. oak savanna region: variation with land use history, habitat restoration, and soil properties

An overarching conclusion in the literature is that soil seed banks rarely contain many restoration‐target species and are often liabilities rather than assets to restoration. Our objective was to evaluate composition and spatial variation of seed banks and their potential contributions to restoration, including restoration‐target species such as rare species and those characterizing historical habitats. On 64 sites in a Midwestern U.S. oak...