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The effects of drought and fire on seed and seedling dynamics in a tropical seasonal forest in Thailand

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Abstract

Seed production and seedling dynamics were studied for 6 years(1992–1997) with particular emphasis on the effects of the drought andfire in a natural tropical seasonal forest at Mae Klong Watershed ResearchStation, Kantchanaburi, western Thailand. The number of seed produced andemerged seedlings varied greatly among years and species. Most tree speciesproduced very few seeds in 1994 and many in 1995 and 1996, particularly,Shorea siamensis Miq. which displayed the most seedinghabit. Some seedlings, Shorea, Dipterocarpus alatus Roxb.,and Dipterocarpus turbinatus Gaertn. f., emerged at theendof the dry season (late April, after the first rain but when soils still have alow soil moisture content), while the majority of seedlings emerged at thebeginning of the rainy season. After a fire disturbed the plot in April 1996,many species increased their seedling emergences, especially Berryaammonilla. Seedlings of most species less than a year old showed arelatively low mortality in the rainy season, but those ofPterocarpusmacrocarpus Kurz had high mortality. The mean survival rate for allseedling species in this forest was quite low (24.1% y−1), anddifferent values existed for the rainy and the dry season (11.5, and 6.1%month−1, respectively). This suggests that different specieshave adaptations related to the season of seedling emergence and resistance todrought in this tropical seasonal forest community. The traits of tree speciesare classified in terms of their traits in the early stages of regeneration;seed and/or seedling bank, resprouting, and drought resistance. Most specieshave adapted to fire and/or drought by resprouting, seed bank, and/or seedlingbank, although the few species which occur mainly in mesic evergreen forestshave less adapted to these environments. The demographic variations in seed andseedling stages may contribute to the coexistence of these species in thisspecies-rich dry tropical forest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest Biology, Faculty of Forestry, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand

    Dokrak Marod & Utis Kutintara

  2. Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Tsukuba, 305-8687, Japan

    Hiroshi Tanaka

  3. Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Kamitanakami-Hirano, Otsu, 520-2113, Japan

    Tohru Nakashizuka

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  1. Dokrak Marod
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  2. Utis Kutintara
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  4. Tohru Nakashizuka
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Marod, D., Kutintara, U., Tanaka, H. et al. The effects of drought and fire on seed and seedling dynamics in a tropical seasonal forest in Thailand. Plant Ecology 161, 41–57 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020372401313

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