Deforested habitats lack of seed dispersal; 2010-2012;Bolivia

The study was conducted in a tropical montane forest in the Bolivian Andes near the town of Chulumani during two years from 2010-2012. We selected eight study sites. At each site, we established one transect of 240 m length, perpendicular to the forest edge, extending 160 m into the forest interior and extending 80 m into the deforested habitat from the forest margin. Along each transect, we systematically established a system of 38 seed traps placed at different distances. We placed two seed traps at 160, 80, 40, and 20 m in the forest interior, two seed traps at 10, 5, -5, -10 m at the forest edge, and four traps at -20 m and -40 m, six traps at -60 m and eight traps at -80 m in deforested areas. To determine the effect of perching structures on the seed dispersal toward deforested areas, half of the seed traps installed in the deforested areas were positioned under artificial perch structures. For each morphospecies (i.e., identified and unidentified seeds) recorded in the seed traps, we measured the following morphological seed traits: seed mass, using a digital scale (Sartorius handy H110), and seed length and seed width, using a digital scanner (Epson expression 10000 XL) and the program Win Folia v. 2.0.