As ecosystem degradation becomes more widespread, there is a growing need for efficient and effective forest restoration methods. Direct seeding is one such method that can be used to cover a relatively large area, particularly places with difficult-to-access terrain. One major obstacle hampering successful restoration via direct seeding is seed predation, as seeds are damaged or eaten. We tested the effectiveness of encrusting six species of native seeds with biochar-based coating in reducing the seeds’ chances of being predated on degraded hillsides and landslide scars in Hong Kong. The six seeded species are native trees and shrubs, including both late-successional and pioneer species that are present in forests and shrublands. Our results show that biochar-based seed coats were able to significantly reduce overall seed predation by 5.77% (SE = 1.41, p < 0.05). Additionally, we found varied effectiveness of the biochar-based seed coats across species and seed morphology. Of the six species that were included, four of them had significantly reduced seed predation after encrusting with biochar-based seed coats, while two other species were not significantly affected by the biochar-based seed coats. When we investigated seed predation against seed morphology, we found that while the species with larger seeds were more likely to be predated when sown without any biochar-based seed coat, the effectiveness of the biochar-based seed coat to reduce predation also increased with larger seeds. Our results suggest that encrusting seeds with biochar-based seed coats is an effective means of reducing seed predation.
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