Preliminary Seed Budgets for Two Plant Communities in Coastal British Columbia

Production, movement and storage of seed in an old growth coniferous forest and adjacent secondary community in British Columbia, Canada, were monitored for 3 years. The old growth forest possessed a small seed budget that included some seed of secondary species, characteristic of disturbed situations. The secondary community possessed a far larger seed budget, dominated by locally-growing secondary species. Small quantities of seed of secondary species were able to infiltrate appreciable distances into the old growth forest. However, the store of seed of these species within the forest was insufficient to account for the large populations that soon appear at logged sites, unless initial populations deriving from this source had undergone very rapid expansion thereafter. The development of rotational tree harvesting in the area is likely to promote an expanding seed budget for secondary species, and a diminishing one for the primary species, characteristic of old growth forests.