Seed banks represent an important, but large ly undiscovered and
underapprec iated component of grass land vegetation dynamics. Given its
importance, our aim was to provide a comprehensive overview about the
current study of seed banks in Central-European grasslands by a literature
review. We found in total 32 stud ies about seed banks of CentralEuropean
grasslands, with a majority of studies originating from Poland,
Germany and Hungary. Most studies used the seedling emergence
method in seed bank analyses. Disturbed grasslands contained a higher
seed density and higher number of persistent species than undisturbed
ones. The si milarity between the species composition of aboveground
vegetat ion and seed banks was genera lly low to medium, but in some
cases high similarity was also found (Sorensen simi larity between 0. 13-
0.75). In disturbed grasslands not only the seed density and species
richness, but also the similarity with aboveground vegetation was higher than in undisturbed ones. Studies noted an increase in seed density and
species richness in the course of succession and also noted the highest
val ues al the end of the so-called mid-successional siage. Studies agreed
that seed bank alone is not enough for habitat restorat ion so interventions
and continuous management is necessary for successfu l restoration. The
seed bank contained seeds of annuals and short-lived spec ies, but the
characteristic grass land specialists generally lacked from the seed bank,
thus there is a need for the ir active introduct ion in most cases