Potential of the seedling community of a forest fragment for tropical forest restoration

Abstract

Forest restoration projects are usually planted with a reduced number of species as compared to standing forests, largely due to the low availability of native species in seedling nurseries. In the present study, the potential of the native seedling community as a source of seedlings for forest restoration is analyzed. To do so, the seedling community from a forest fragment located in the southeast of Brazil was evaluated. Individuals (tree and shrub species) up to 30 cm height were measured and identified in 20 4 × 4 m plots. Altogether, 6,136 individuals (17 individuals m-2) belonging to 119 species were sampled. The seedling community showed a spatial heterogeneity with respect to the density of individuals and composition of species, and also a spatial aggregation for the 10 most abundant species. Several species that occurred in high densities in the seedling community are not presently available in regional forest nurseries and are therefore not used in restoration projects. This result and the high number of individuals and species found in the fragment suggest a great potential of this type of forest remnants as a source of highly diverse seedling banks for use in restoration projects.