Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T10:36:24.295Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Soil seed bank community dynamics in seasonally moist lowland tropical forest, Panama

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

J. W. Dalling ,
M. D. Swaine  and
Nancy C. Garwood
J. W. Dalling*
Affiliation:
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Unit 0948, APO AA 34002–0948
M. D. Swaine
Affiliation:
Department of Plant and Soil Science, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB9 2UD, UK.
Nancy C. Garwood
Affiliation:
Botany Department, Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK.
*
1 Email: dallingj@bci.si.edu, Fax: (Panamá) 507-2723065.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Seasonal changes in the densities of dormant seeds in the soil around eight pioneer trees in the 50-ha Forest Dynamics Plot, on Barro Colorado Island, Panamá were studied, and how seed dispersal and seed dormancy influenced patterns of seed abundance and distribution were examined. Twenty-four, 3-cm-deep soil samples were collected on 30 m transects radiating out from each of the trees in each of four time-intervals through the year, and four 21-cm-deep samples were collected beneath the focal tree crowns. In the surface 0–3 cm of soil, germinable seed densities of all species combined declined from a peak of 1090 seeds m−2 in the mid-wet season in August, to 330 seeds m−2 by the end of the wet season in November. In contrast, at soil depths >3 cm, there was little variation in soil seed bank density through the year. Some variation in soil seed bank density for individual species could be accounted for by distance to reproductive conspecifics. Among species, abundance in the soil was negatively correlated with seed size. Seed persistence varied greatly among species at this site; after 1 y of burial in mesh bags, seed germinability of four species was near zero, while four other species showed no consistent decline in seed germinability after >2 y of burial. For at least one species, Trema micrantha, prolonged seed dormancy was also possible under natural conditions. Twenty-five percent of Trema seeds extracted from the soil at a site occupied by an isolated Trema tree that died between 1982 and 1985 were still germinable in 1994.

Keywords

Barro Colorado Islandpioneerseed burialseed dispersalseed dormancysoil seed bank
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 13 , Issue 5 , September 1997 , pp. 659 - 680
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

Acuña, P. & Garwood, N. C. 1987. Efecto de la luz y de la escarificación en la germinación de las semillas de cinco especies de arboles tropicales secundarios. Revista de Biología Tropical 35:203–207.Google Scholar
Alexandre, D.-Y. 1978. Observations sur l'écologie de Trema guineensis en basse Côte d'Ivoire. Cahiers O R.S.T.O.M. Series Biologique 13:261–266.Google Scholar
Alvarez-Buylla, E. & Martínez-Ramos, R. 1990. Seed bank versus seed rain in the regeneration of a tropical pioneer tree. Oecologia 84:314–325.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brandani, A., Hartshorn, G. S. & Orians, G. H. 1988. Internal heterogeneity of gaps and species richness in Costa Rican tropical wet forest. Journal of Tropical Ecology 4:99–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brokaw, N. V. L. 1982. Treefalls: frequency, timing, and consequences. Pp. 101–108 in Leigh, E., Rand, A. & Windsor, D. (eds). The ecology of a tropical forest. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D. C.Google Scholar
Brokaw, N. V. L. 1986. Seed dispersal, gap colonization, and the case of Cecropia insignis. Pp. 323–333 in Estrada, A. & Fleming, T. (eds). Frugivores and seed dispersal. Junk, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chandrashekara, U. M. & Ramakrishnan, P. S. 1993. Germinable soil seed bank dynamics during the gap phase of a humid tropical forest in the Western Ghats of Kerala, India. Journal of Tropical Ecology 9:455–467.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheke, A. S., Nanakorn, W. & Yankoses, C. 1979. Dormancy and dispersal of seeds of secondary forest species under the canopy of a primary tropical rain forest in northern Thailand. Biotropica 11:88–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, D. 1966. Optimizing reproduction in a randomly varying environment. Journal of Theoretical Biology 12:119–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawley, M. J. 1993. GUM for ecologists. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford. 379 pp.Google Scholar
Croat, T. R. 1978. Flora of Barro Colorado Island. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, 943 pp.Google Scholar
Dalling, J. W., Swaine, M. D. & Garwood, N. C. 1995. Effect of soil depth on seedling emergence in tropical soil seed bank investigations. Functional Ecology 9:119–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalling, J. W., Swaine, M. D. & Garwood, N. C. 1997. Soil seed bank dynamics of pioneer trees in seasonally moist forest, Panamá. Ecology (in press).Google Scholar
Denslow, J. S. & Gomez Diaz, A. E. 1990. Seed rain to tree-fall gaps in a neotropical rain forest. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 20:642–648.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dietrich, W. E., Windsor, D. M. & Dunne, T. 1982. Geology, climate and hydrology of Barro Colorado Island. Pp. 21–46 in Leigh, E., Rand, A. & Windsor, D. (eds). The ecology of a tropical forest. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C.Google Scholar
Dirzo, R. & Dominguez, C. A. 1986. Seed shadows, seed predation and the advantages of dispersal. Pp. 237–249 in Estrada, A. & Fleming, T. (eds). Frugivores and seed dispersal. Junk, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enright, N. 1985. Evidence of a soil seed bank under rain forest in New Guinea. Australian Journal of Ecology 10:67–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenner, M. 1985. Seed ecology. Chapman & Hall, London. 151 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleming, T. H. & Heithaus, E. R. 1981. Frugivorous bats, seed shadows, and the structure of tropical forests. Biotropica 13:45–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, R. B. 1982. The seasonal rhythm of fruitfall on Barro Colorado Island. Pp. 151–172 in Leigh, E., Rand, A. & Windsor, D. (eds). The ecology of a tropical forest. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C.Google Scholar
Foster, R. B. & Brokaw, N. V. L. 1982. Structure and history of the vegetation of Barro Colorado Island. Pp. 67–81 in Leigh, E., Rand, A. & Windsor, D. (eds). The ecology of a tropical forest. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C.Google Scholar
Garwood, N. C. 1986. Constraints on the timing of seed germination in a tropical forest. Pp. 347–355 in Estrada, A. & Fleming, T. (eds). Frugivores and seed dispersal. Junk, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garwood, N. C. 1989. Tropical soil seed banks: a review. Pp. 149–209 in Leek, M., Parker, V. & Simpson, R. (eds). Ecology of soil seed banks. Academic Press, San Diego, California.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gorchov, D. L., Cornejo, F. Ascorra S. & Jaramillo, M. 1993. The role of seed dispersal in the natural regeneration of rain forest after strip-cutting in the Peruvian Amazon. Vegetatio 107/108:339–349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guevara, S. & Gomez-Pompa, A. 1972. Seeds from surface soils in a tropical region of Veracruz, Mexico. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 53:312–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gúzman-Grajoles, S. M. & Walker, L. R. 1991. Differential seedling responses to litter after Hurricane Hugo in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. Biotropica 23:407–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holthuijzen, A. M. A. & Boerboom, J. H. A. 1982. The Cecropia seedbank in the Surinam lowland rain forest. Biotropica 14:62–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, M. S. & Graham, A. W. 1983. The species composition of soil seed banks beneath lowland tropical rain forests in North Queensland, Australia. Biotropica 15:90–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, M. S. & Graham, A. W. 1987. The viability of seeds of rain forest species after experimental soil burials under tropical wet lowland forest in north-eastern Australia. Australian Journal of Ecology 12:97–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hubbell, S. P. & Foster, R. B.. 1983. Diversity of canopy trees in a neotropical forest and implications for conservation. Pp. 25–41 in Sutton, S., Whitmore, T. & Chadwick, A. (eds). Tropical rain forest: ecology and management. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, England.Google Scholar
Kennedy, D. N. & Swaine, M. D.. 1992. Germination and growth of colonizing species in artificial gaps of different sizes in dipterocarp rain forest. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London, Series B 335:357–366.Google Scholar
Lawton, R. O. & Putz, F. E. 1988. Natural disturbance and gap-phase regeneration in a wind-exposed tropical cloud forest. Ecology 69:764–777.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magurran, A. E. 1988. Ecological diversity and its measurement. Princeton University Press, New Jersey. 178 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCullagh, P. & Nelder, J. A. 1989. Generalized linear models Chapman & Hall, London. 511 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molofsky, J. & Augspurger, C. K. 1992. The effect of leaf litter on early seedling establishment in a tropical forest. Ecology 73:68–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, K. G. 1988. Avian seed dispersal of three neotropical gap-dependent plants. Ecological Monographs 58:271–298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perez-Nasser, N. & Vázquez-Yanes, C. 1986. Longevity of buried seeds from some tropical rain forest trees and shrubs of Veracruz, Mexico. Malayan Forester 49:352–356.Google Scholar
Prévost, M. F. 1981. Mise en évidence de graines d'espèces pionnières dans le sol de forêt primaire en Guyane. Turrialba 31:121–127.Google Scholar
Putz, F. E. 1983. Treefall pits and mounds, buried seeds and the importance of soil disturbance to pioneer trees on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Ecology 64:1069–1074.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putz, F. E., & Appanah, B. 1987. Buried seeds, newly dispersed seeds, and the dynamics of a lowland forest in Malaysia. Biotropica 19:326–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rand, A. S. & Rand, W. M. 1982. Variation in rainfall on Barro Colorado Island. Pp. 47–66 in Leigh, E., Rand, A. & Windsor, D. (eds). The ecology of a tropical forest. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C.Google Scholar
Riera, B. 1985. Importance des buttes de déracinement dans la régéneration forestière en Guyane française. Revue Ecologie (Terreet et la Vie) 40:321–329.Google Scholar
Saulei, S. M. & Swaine, M. D. 1988. Rain forest seed dynamics during succession at Gogol, Papua New Guinea. Journal of Ecology 76:1133–1152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swaine, M. D. & Hall, J. B. 1983. Early succession on cleared forest land in Ghana. Journal of Ecology 71:601–627.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uhl, C., Clark, K., Clark, H. & Murphy, P. 1981. Early plant succession after cutting and burning in the upper Rio Negro region of the Amazon Basin. Journal of Ecology 69:631–649.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Der Plank, J. E. 1960. Analysis of epidemics. Plant Pathology 3:229–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Steenis, C. G. G. J. 1958. Rejuvenation as a factor for judging the status of vegetation types. The biological nomad theory. Pp 212–215 in Proceedings of the symposium on humid tropics vegetation, Kandy. UNESCO, Paris.Google Scholar
Vazquez-Yanes, C. & Smith, H. 1982. Phytochrome control of seed germination in the tropical rain forest pioneer trees Cecropia obtusifolia and Piper auritum and its ecological significance. New Phytologist 92:477–485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Venable, D. L. & Brown, J. S. 1988. The selective interactions of dispersal, dormancy and seed size as adaptations for reducing risk in variable environments. American Naturalist 131:360–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Venable, D. L. & Lawlor, L. 1980. Delayed germination and dispersal in desert annuals: escape in space and time. Oecologia 46:272–282.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whitmore, T. C. 1983. Secondary succession from seed in tropical rain forests. Forestry Abstracts 44:767–779.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, L., Hill, M. & Vang, E. 1992. SYSTAT: Statistics, Version 5.2 Edition. Systat Inc., Evanston IL. 724 pp.Google Scholar
Willson, M. F. 1993. Dispersal mode, seed shadows, and colonization patterns. Vegetatio 107/108: 261–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willson, M. F. & Crome, F. H. C. 1989. Patterns of seed rain at the edge of a tropical Queensland rain forest. Journal of Tropical Ecology 5:301–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Windsor, D. M. 1990. Climate and moisture variability in a tropical forest: long-term records from Barro Colorado Island, Panamá. Smithsonian Contributions to the Earth Sciences, Number 29. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. 145 pp.Google Scholar
Young, K. R. 1985. Deeply buried seeds in a topical wet forest in Costa Rica. Biotropica 17:336–338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, K. R., Ewel, J. J. & Brown, B. J. 1987. Seed dynamics during forest succession in Costa Rica. Vegetatio 71:157–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar