Vegetation and soil seed bank of successional stages in tropical lowland deciduous forest

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Abstract
We studied vegetation structure and soil seed bank composition in different successional stages of secondary lowland tropical deciduous forest in Yucatán, Mexico. The series of study sites includes: slashed (S), slashed‐and‐burned (SB), and regenerating for 1, 6, 10, 15, 30, 40 and 100 yr. Species richness (S= 42 ‐ 65), evenness (E= 0.32 ‐ 0.38), and diversity (H'= 1.2 ‐ 1.6) do not vary much as the forest grows older. 20 species of shrubs and trees were present in at least six of the seven regrowth years studied; 10 of these account for more than 50% of the total density values per regrowth year. These species dominate the vegetation due to their capacity to withstand repeated fire and felling. One third of the individuals sampled had regenerated from coppiced shoots. Species composition little resembles that in earlier accounts. The area is now largely covered by young regrowth stages (1 ‐ 20 yr). Species constituting the original woody structure of the mature forest are rare or absent due to the lack of seed sources and failure of dispersal (which is due to limited dispersal capacities), lack of dispersal agents, or long distances. Herbs were the most important life form in the soil seed banks; only one tree species was found. The number of viable seeds varied between sampled areas: 70/m2in the 40 yr‐old, to 1 815/m2in the slashed‐and‐burned (SB). The vegetation of S‐ and SB‐areas was the same, but the number of viable seeds germinating in SB was twice the number in S; the number of species in the seed bank is the same for both areas. We speculate that fire modifies species dominance early in succession, allowing seeds of some species to germinate in great numbers.