XVI International Botanical Congess

Although post-dispersal seed survival has strong effects on seed bank composition, this facet of seed bank dynamics is rarely examined. After dispersal, seeds succumb not only to predators, but fungal pathogens, bacteria and inherent deterioration as well. The spatial distribution of mortality and germination factors, amended by the distribution of aboveground vegetation, can generate seed bank density and diversity patterns that diverge from that predicted by dispersal. Evidence for the important role of postdispersal seed fates in population and community dynamics and the effects of postdisturbance vegetation will be presented. Supporting data is derived from one of the first studies to explicitly examine the fate of a single year's cohort of seeds from throughout a community over the course of two years.