The use of seed banks in ecological restoration: effects of anthropogenic disturbances as ecological filters

The role of soil seed banks for ecological restoration has been extensively recognized, it has been mainly recommended as a source of plant material to re-establish the lost vegetation after disturbances. Although ideally, restoration projects should be including seeds from local provenance (e.g. from seed banks) into ecological restoration strategies, it is not always possible. Therefore, a theoretical approach about the state and future usefulness of seed banks can contribute, in these cases, to planning restoration projects. Consequently, several studies have sought to identify the potential use of the soil seed bank for ecological restoration by analysing the literature. However, most reviews have been focused in only one ecosystem, in a particular geographic region, or a specific kind of disturbance, instead of an interaction of several factors. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate how the kind of anthropogenic disturbance and its regimen, by acting as ecological filters, influence the potential of seed banks for ecological restoration. To achieve this objective, we will review and analyse the literature published all around the world from 1995 to 2020 by using the keywords ¿seed bank¿ and ¿restoration¿ for searching in the databases. As a result, we expect to determine where and under which circumstances the seed bank has the higher potential to restore above-ground vegetation and how the environmental filters imposed by anthropogenic disturbances act on the potential of seed banks for vegetation recovery. Finally, we expect to provide some recommendations for restoration projects that include the use of the seed bank.