Seed shadow and recruitment patterns of Clusia species;2010-2012; Bolivia

The field work was carried out in a tropical montane forest in the Bolivian Andes, near the town of Chulumani. We recorded the seed-deposition and recruitment pattern of Clusia species at seven study sites. At each site, we established one plot of 20 x 100 m size parallel to the forest edge (10 m from the forest margin), and another plot of the same size in the forest interior (160 m from the forest margin). The number of dispersed seeds was assessed using seed traps that were installed along two transects in opposite directions originating from the tree base, extending to a distance of 16 m. Along each transect, we placed one trap at 2 and 4 m, two traps at 8 and 12 m and four traps at 16 m from the tree base. We estimated the overall crop size produced in each fruiting season by multiplying the average number of fruits per raceme by the total number of racemes in the tree. Sampling of Clusia recruitment stages was conducted after the second fruiting season in March 2012. To determine the abundance and spatial distribution of different recruitment stages, we recorded individuals of all recruitment stages at the same time. At each site, plots were divided in 100 subplots of 2 x 10 m in order to obtain geographic coordinates of each individual of different recruitment stages. Recruitment stages were: “seedlings 1” (1-yr-old germinated with two cotyledons; height < 5 cm), “seedlings 2” (more than 2-yr-old with more than two leaves; height 15 cm and 10 cm and 100 cm) and adult trees (fruiting trees with dbh > 30 cm).