Spatial Relationship Between Seed and Seedling Abundance and Mortality in a Deciduous Forest of North-Eastern North America

The relationship between seed and seedling spatial patterns of abundance was examined for five tree species in a deciduous forest of north-eastern North America. In this low-diversity forest, seed shadows (from different individuals of a given tree species) may overlap to a significant extent. The selective advantages of greater seed dispersal ability in order to avoid high predation and pathogen attack and intraspecific competition at proximity to the parent tree in unclear in this context. On the study site, there were no strong and consistent relationships between seed and seedling spatial patterns of abundance for any of the tree species studied (...)