Influence of litter and weather on seedling recruitment in a mixed oak-pine woodland.

ABSTRACT: The effects of regular litter removal and annual variation in temperature and precipitation on seedling recruitment of species differing in their seed size and mode of dispersal were studied in a 16-year (1984-1999) experiment in a mixed oak-pine wood in southern Poland. Litter was the most important factor in determining spatial variability in seedling recruitment, whereas differences in climatic conditions among years, especially temperature fluctuations in late winter and early spring, determined the temporal variability in seedling recruitment. Compared with control plots, significantly more new individuals of bryophytes and seedlings as well as a number of new species of vascular plants were noted in the litter-removal plots over the 16-year study. Litter strongly impeded seedling eme

SUBMITTER: Dzwonko Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4240421 | biostudies-literature | 2002 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature