Forest reconnection in permanent agricultural landscapes, where continuous forest recovery is unlikely, can occur through restoration plantings, yet how species selection influences their long-term outcomes remains poorly understood. Using a long-term restoration experiment in Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico, we tested whether the dispersal mode of planted species affects recruitment. In 2006, twenty-four 30 × 30 m plots were established in former cattle pasture and assigned to one of three treatments: (1) animal-dispersed plantings, (2) wind-dispersed plantings, or (3) natural succession. After 17 years, (2023), we conducted a census of plants 40–225 cm tall. We recorded 4847 plants from 109 taxa (82 identified to species or genus). When all recruits were considered, the two planting treatments showed higher plant and species density than natural succession while diversity was higher in animal-dispersed plantings. Excluding recruits of planted species revealed that recruit density was higher in animal-dispersed plantings. Diversity and composition were similar among treatments, but animal-dispersed planting had a higher number of unique non-pioneer recruits, despite not showing higher average seed width. A higher non-pioneer to pioneer ratio observed in wind-dispersed plantings was driven entirely by one of the planted species, Vochysia guatemalensis , which accounted for 23.8% of recruits in those plantings. These results indicate that tree planting increases recruitment magnitude relative to natural succession. Also, plantings provide higher-quality habitat than natural succession, facilitating the arrival and retention of rare forest species that would otherwise be excluded by recruitment limitations imposed by the degraded matrix. • Understory communities of three restoration treatments were censused after 17 years. • Tree planting increased recruit density and species density vs natural succession. • After excluding planted species’ recruits, animal-dispersed plantings had higher recruit density. • Composition and evenness were similar across treatments, indicating convergence of the understory community.
Beltrán et al. (Thu,) studied this question.