Abstract: Soil seed bank has the unique regional species composition and genetic characteristics, and plays important roles in maintaining species diversity and population density. Topsoil, as a kind of revegetation materials, has the potential in vegetation restoration. Based on the Japanese literatures, this paper introduced the characteristics and contents of revegetation with topsoil, and discussed the revegetation modes from the aspects of topsoil mixing ratio, slope surface condition, and topsoil collection depth. The application cases of topsoil in various habitat types such as forests, roads, wetlands, and abandoned lands were also introduced. Some suggestions to the further researches on topsoil application in vegetation restoration were proposed, e.g., to strengthen the practical research of topsoil, to determine the appropriate techniques and targets of topsoil application as well as the survey methods and applicability standards, and to develop the low cost and high-efficient new application ways of topsoil.

Key words: soil seed bank, vegetation restoration, topsoil, Japan, soil fertility, principal component, land use pattern, karst.