Seed rain dynamics of natural secondary forest in the central part of Greater Xing'an Mountains, China.

Abstract

We monitored seed rain in three forest types for two years (2018-2019) in the central part of Greater Xing'an Mountains, and analyzed the seasonal seed rain dynamics, deciduous dynamics, seed rain thousand-grain weight, inter-annual variation of seed rain, and spatial pattern of seed rain of the main tree species in different forest types. The results showed that seed rain of Larix gmelinii and Betula platyphylla in each forest type showed unimodal distribution. The leaf litter amount of coniferous and broad-leaved species (L. gmelinii, Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica, Picea koraiensis, B. platyphylla and Populus davidiana) also showed obvious seasonal dynamics, with a peak in the middle and early September. In coniferous and broadleaved mixed forests and coniferous forests, the 1000-grain weight of L. gmelinii at the peak period was significantly greater than that at the initial and final stages. The 1000-grain weight of B. platyphylla in the three forest types did not show obvious seasonal variation. Seed rain of L. gmelinii and B. platyphylla showed obvious inter-annual change. The year 2018 was a large seed set year, whereas 2019 was a year with small seed set. The spatial pattern of all seed rain was mainly dominated by aggregated distribution in both years, which was consistent with that of seedlings and saplings.