Dispersal syndrome influences the match between seed rain and soil seed bank of woody species in a Neotropical dry forest

Abstract

Aims Plant recruitment may occur immediately after seed dispersal from the mother plant, or be delayed through the formation of soil seed banks. These strategies are known to be mediated by adaptations of seed dispersal and reproductive phenology, which if analyzed together can provide valuable information about the regeneration strategies of species. We explored whether dispersal syndrome and/or seed dispersal phenology control the similarity between standing vegetation, seed rain and soil seed bank in a seasonally dry tropical forest (SDTF) in Southern Ecuador.

Location Arenillas Ecological Reserve, Southwestern Ecuador, the biogeographic region of Pacific Coastal Ecuador.

Methods We recorded standing vegetation of woody species in a 9-ha permanent plot and sampled soil seed bank from 265 cores of 0.06 m2. Additionally, we sampled seed rain from 265 seed traps of 0.64 m2 for one year. We evaluated similarity in species composition, species richness, and abundance between the three components for all species and for each dispersal syndrome.

Results The community we studied showed a high similarity in species composition between components. The similarity was influenced by dispersal syndrome and the seed dispersal phenology. Similarity between seed rain and standing vegetation was high in species that dispersed in the rainy season, such as zoochorous species, while for autochorous species, compared with the other dispersal syndromes it was higher between seed bank and standing vegetation.

Conclusions In our SDTF, dispersal phenology seemed to influence whether seeds had direct germination or entered the soil seed bank and influenced the match between seed rain and soil seed bank, suggesting different regeneration strategies related to dispersal ability.