Seed Rain, Soil Seed Bank, and Seedling Emergence Indicate Limited Potential for Self-Recovery in a Highly Disturbed, Tropical, Mixed Deciduous Forest.

ABSTRACT: Human activity negatively affects the sustainability of forest ecosystems globally. Disturbed forests may or may not recover by themselves in a certain period of time. However, it is still unclear as to what parameters can be used to reasonably predict the potential for self-recovery of human-disturbed forests. Here, we combined seed rain, soil seed bank, and seed emergence experiments to evaluate the potential for self-recovery of a highly disturbed, tropical, mixed deciduous forest in northeastern Thailand. Our results show a limited potential for self-recovery of this forest due to low seedling input and storage and an extremely high mortality rate during the drought period. There were 15 tree species of seedlings present during the regeneration period in comparison with a total number

SUBMITTER: Chalermsri A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7589040 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature