Spatial Heterogeneity in the Soil Seed Bank of a Mature Coastal Plain Forest

(...) Historical records indicate that stands had not been tilled or clear-cut for at least 100 years prior to the study. The seed flora was dominated by herbaceous species typical of early successional and disturbed habitats, but generally absent from the mature forest community. Seed distributions ranged from mildly to strongly clustered at the scale of 100 cm 2 samples, but local abundance of seed was independent of litter composition or density of vegetative stems in adjacent 4 m 2 quadrats. (...)