Sexual recruitment of trees in strip cuts in eastern Canada

Abstract

I tested a sexual recruitment model that couples equations for seed production, dispersal, and juvenile survivorship using 10 sets of recent strip cuts in Quebec and New Brunswick. The model states that seed production is dependent on basal area and inversely proportional to seed mass, while juvenile survival is directly proportional to seed mass. In consequence, the seed mass effects should (roughly) cancel out, and fecundity should be primarily a function of basal area. Further, the model predicts that species evenness should be more or less the same following strip-cutting. As expected from the model, the single best predictor (r2 = 0.53) of recruitment density was the basal area density (area/area) of the source trees, and all cuts were well stocked. There was a stronger tendency toward a post-harvest increase in species evenness than was expected. Ninety percent of all stems were recruited by the fourth growing season.