| A seed bank study was performed at an abandoned mature plantation in Maricao, Puerto Rico to examine the seed bank's contribution to the vegetation of the study site. Ten soil seed bank samples were collected five times from a 50 x 25 m area between June 1999 and November 2000. The number of individuals and the species composition of the seed bank were assessed using the seedling emergence method. A total of 839 seedlings germinated from the seed bank samples, representing 27 families and 56 species. Of the 56 species, 9 were trees, 6 were shrubs, 30 were herbs and 11 were unidentified growth forms. The number of seedlings per date sampled varied from 107 to 250. The seedling density for the study area was 250 seeds/m2, and overall, there was a high variability in the distribution of the seeds. When comparing the seed bank species composition to that of the standing vegetation, a low concordance between the two was found. There was little representation of the forest site's woody taxa in the seed bank, and this may have been due to the quick-germinating, and short-lived status of their seeds; or other factors may have been involved, as discussed further.{09} Based on the results, this study suggests that the seed bank may not be the only source of recruits for this site, and that other regeneration strategies (i.e., seed rain from adjacent areas and seedling bank) and environmental factors influence the success of forest regeneration. |
