Herbivory Rather than Root Competition and Environmental Factors Determines Plant Establishment in Fragmented Forests

In fragmented forests, many factors can affect plant community establishment, including abiotic factors, below-ground root competition, aboveground seed predation, and seedling herbivory. Little is known about the relative effects of biotic affecting initial stage establishment: gemmation early survival. Here, we carried out a competition exclusion experiment herbivory (including predation) on 11 islands in Thousand Island Lake, China, using four native woody species that differed functional traits (e.g., mass dominance). The dominant showed highest survival, there was no significant linear relationship between proportion surviving seedlings island area under either treatment for any species. Compared to control excluding treatments, predation significantly increased survival after controlling environmental factors. However, had effect establishment. Our results suggest regeneration rare ecosystems may be limited more susceptible predators herbivores ecosystems. These have implications conservation diversity forests.