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Seed predation patterns favor the regeneration of dominant species in forest gaps compared with the understory in an oak-pine mixed forest

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Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated the higher likelihood of regeneration in forest gaps compared with the understory for the dominant species in pine-oak mixed forest. Here, we tested whether rodent seed predation or dispersal was beneficial for gap regeneration. We tracked the seed predation and dispersal of Quercus aliena var. acuteserrata and Pinus armandii using coded plastic tags in the forest understory close to gaps. Our results demonstrated that the proportions of initial buried seeds of both species were significantly more abundant in the forest understory compared with gaps. After seed caching, however, significantly lower proportions of the seeds of both species survived in the forest understory compared with gaps during the 30-day observation period. The final survival proportions of the seeds cached in the forest understory were lower than those cached in the gaps the next spring, which indicated that small rodents rarely retrieved scatter-hoarded seeds from forest gaps. Our findings suggest that rodent seed predation patterns contribute to the regeneration of the dominant species in gaps compared with the understory in a pine-oak mixed forest. In the study area, reforestation usually involves planting seedlings but direct sowing in forest gaps may be an alternative means of accelerating forest recovery and successional processes.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on the manuscript and Dr. Duncan E. Jackson for improving the English language content of the manuscript. We also thank Qinling National Forest Ecosystem Research Station at Huoditang, Ningshaan County, Shaanxi Province, for much support to our field investigation. Funds were provided by the Special Research Program for Public–Welfare Forestry of the State Forestry Administration of China (No. 20100400206), National Natural Science Funds (No. 31070570), and CFERN & GENE Award Funds on Ecological Paper. The experiments complied with the current laws of our country.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Northwest A&F University, Yangling District, Shaanxi, 712100, China

    Fei Yu, Xiaoxiao Shi, Dexiang Wang & Tao Wang

  2. College of Life Sciences, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, Henan, 453007, China

    Fei Yu

  3. College of Life Sciences, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, 330022, China

    Xianfeng Yi

  4. Shangluo Vocational & Technical College, Shangzhou District, Shangluo, 726000, China

    Yuangen Lou

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  1. Fei Yu
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  2. Xiaoxiao Shi
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  4. Tao Wang
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Correspondence to Dexiang Wang.

Additional information

Communicated by: Dries Kuijper

Fei Yu and Xiaoxiao Shi contributed equally to this work

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Yu, F., Shi, X., Wang, D. et al. Seed predation patterns favor the regeneration of dominant species in forest gaps compared with the understory in an oak-pine mixed forest. Acta Theriol 59, 495–502 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-014-0192-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-014-0192-y

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