Forest Matrix Favors the Recovering of Seed Rain in Areas Undergoing Restoration

Abstract

We used seed rain to monitor a conserved forest and a 5-6-year-old forest undergoing natural regeneration after fire. The sampled species were classified according to regionality, life forms, dispersal modes, and successional stage, and the forests were compared. The type of forest and time since disturbance had significant effect on the abundance of seeds -67.3% being produced in the forest under restoration. Biological diversity was higher in the conserved forest. On the other hand, species richness was not affected by the type of forest, and the species composition was similar between forests. In addition, we found similar proportions of life forms, zoochorous species, and non-pioneer species in the forests. Our study shows that natural regenerating forests can recover different attributes of the seed rain in few years when in forest matrices. Thus, to accelerate restoration and create trustworthy forests we should conserve the remaining mature fragments and use them to facilitate ecological restoration.