XVI International Botanical Congess

On the basis of seedling recruitment, we evaluated the relative importance of propagule sources on forest regeneration. In primary forest, secondary forest and pasture, we eliminated different propagules: seed and seedling bank, seed rain and seedling bank, and seedling bank alone. For a year we counted the number of recruitments and grouped them into shade tolerant and pioneer species. In primary forest and pasture recruitment was mostly through seed rain, whereas in secondary forest it was through seed bank. The number of shade tolerant species was very similar for all habitats, but few pioneers were recruited into pasture. Differences on predators, dispersers, and microenvironment might restrain recruitment into the habitats. Results indicate that regeneration along successional stages depends on different propagule sources.