DEMOGRAPHIC GENETICS OF A PIONEER TROPICAL TREE SPECIES: PATCH DYNAMICS, SEED DISPERSAL, AND SEED BANKS

Long-term persistence of pioneer species in tropical rain forest soil seed banks.

In tropical forests, pioneer tree species regenerate from seeds dispersed directly into canopy gaps and from seeds that persisted in soil seed banks before gap formation. Life-history models have suggested that selection for the long-term persistence of tree seeds in the soil should be weak because persistence potentially reduces population growth rate by extending generation time and because a...

Seed limitation and the coexistence of pioneer tree species

Seed limitation, defined as the failure of seeds to arrive at sites favorable for recruitment, may be a critical force structuring plant communities. When seed limitation is strong, interspecific competition is reduced, and competitive exclusion may be slowed to the extent that diversity can be maintained through speciation and migration. In mature tropical forests, seed limitation may be espec...

Seed dispersal increases local species richness and reduces spatial turnover of tropical tree seedlings.

Dispersal is thought to be a key process underlying the high spatial diversity of tropical forests. Just how important dispersal is in structuring plant communities is nevertheless an open question because it is very difficult to isolate dispersal from other processes, and thereby measure its effect. Using a unique situation, the loss of vertebrate seed dispersers on the island of Guam and thei...

Seed Dispersal and Frugivory in Tropical Ecosystems

Endozoochorous seed dispersal of plant species in semi-steppe rangelands

During last two decades studies on endozoochorous seed dispersal indicated that a large numbers of plant seeds are potentially dispersed and suceefully germinated via animal dung. However, very little is known about the relative importance of endozoochory in germination success of plant species in semi-steppe rangelands. In this paper we examined dung germinating seed content, seed deposition p...