1. Grassland restorations often lack rare forb and grass species that are found in intact grasslands. The possible reasons for low diversity include seed limitation, microsite limitation and a combination of both. Native ungulates may create microsites for seedling establishment in tallgrass prairie restorations by grazing dominant species or through trampling activities, but this has never bee...

Stand establishment problems occur frequently in Arkansas rice fields and are commonly associated with cool soil temperatures (early planting) and saturated soils. There are several factors that affect rice stand establishment including diseases and insects. It is important to understand what pathogens or pests are the cause of stand problems in rice for managing stand establishment problems. I...

BACKGROUND Seedling recruitment is essential to the sustainability of any plant population. Due to the minute nature of seeds and early-stage seedlings, orchid germination in situ was for a long time practically impossible to observe, creating an obstacle towards understanding seedling site requirements and fluctuations in orchid populations. The introduction of seed packet techniques for sowin...

Seedling recruitment limitations create a demographic bottleneck that largely determines the viability and structure of plant populations and communities, and pose a core restriction on the colonization of novel habitat. We use a shadetolerant, invasive grass, Microstegium vimineum, to examine the interplay between seed and establishment limitations – phenomena that together determine recruitme...

Postma, F. M. 2016. Selection during Early Life Stages and Local Adaptation in Arabidopsis thaliana. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology 1425. 51 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-554-9687-6. Organisms are often adapted to their local environment, but the role of early life stages in adaptive differentiation ...

Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal mycelia are the main organs for nutrient uptake in many woody plants, and often connect seedlings to mature trees. While it is known that resources are shared among connected plants via common mycorrhizal networks (CMNs), the net effects of CMNs on seedling performance in the field are almost unknown. CMNs of individual ECM fungal species were produced in an early s...

An understanding of natural regeneration processes, and the stand structural features that influence those processes, is vital to attaining goals associated with natural regeneration. This paper discusses natural regeneration concepts and the interactions that occur between shrubs and natural regeneration of ponderosa pine. The interactions observed recently in a series of related seedling recr...

Declines in riparian willow (Salix spp.) communities in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, USA , coincident with a large increase in elk (Cervus elaphus L.) populations, has raised concerns about the future of willow communities. To identify possible constraints on willow establishment in two heavily browsed riparian areas, in 2000 and 2001, we examined seed dispersal phenology, germinabil...