Analysis of plant soil seed banks and seed dispersal vectors: Its potential and limits for forensic investigations

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00023272%3A_____%2F17%3A10133678" target="_blank" >RIV/00023272:_____/17:10133678 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2016.11.030" target="_blank" >http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2016.11.030</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2016.11.030" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.forsciint.2016.11.030</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Analysis of plant soil seed banks and seed dispersal vectors: Its potential and limits for forensic investigations

Original language description

Plant seeds exhibit many species-specific traits, thus potentially being especially helpful for forensic investigations. Seeds of a broad range of plant species occur in soil seed banks of various habitats and may become attached in large quantities to moving objects. Although plant seeds are now routinely used as trace evidence in forensic practice, only scant information has been published on this topic in the scientific literature. Thus, the standard methods remain unknown to specialists in such botanical subjects as plant ecology and plant geography. These specialists, if made aware of the forensic uses of seeds, could help in development of new, more sophisticated approaches. We aim to bridge the gap between forensic analysts and botanists. Therefore, we explore the available literature and compare it with our own experiences to reveal both the potential and limits of soil seed bank and seed dispersal analysis in forensic investigations. We demonstrate that habitat-specific and thus relatively rare species are of the greatest forensic value. Overall species composition, in terms of species presence/absence and relative abundance can also provide important information. In particular, the ecological profiles of seeds found on any moving object can help us identify the types of environments through which the object had travelled. We discuss the applicability of this approach to various European environments, with the ability to compare seed samples with georeferenced vegetation databases being particularly promising for forensic investigations. We also explore the forensic limitations of soil seed bank and seed dispersal vector analyses.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10611 - Plant sciences, botany

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2017

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Forensic Science International

ISSN

0379-0738

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

270

Issue of the periodical within the volume

January

Country of publishing house

IE - IRELAND

Number of pages

8

Pages from-to

121-128

UT code for WoS article

000391546900024

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85002992666