森林种子雨研究进展与展望

种子雨阶段是植物更新的关键环节,它连接着繁殖生产与植物后续生活史阶段,对群落结构有着重要的影响.虽然早在19世纪中叶达尔文就认识到种子扩散的重要性,然而对种子雨的广泛研究于20世纪80年代初才开始.本文聚焦于森林木本植物种子雨研究,首先介绍了种子雨监测方法,包括收集器的布置,种子雨的收集、分离和鉴定.然后综述了种子雨的4个主要研究方向:种子产量的时间和空间变化格局(包括季节变化、年际变化和空间变化)、增补限制及其在物种多样性维持中的作用、验证负密度效应假说、种子雨与其他生活史阶段(土壤种子库、幼苗、幼树及母树)的比较.未来还需要加强对种子雨的长期监测,开展增补限制的跨纬度比较研究,探讨植物早期更新阶段负密度效应沿纬度梯度的变化规律,加强数学模型以及分子标记和稳定同位素技术等新手段的运用.

Advancements and prospects in forest seed rain studies

Seed dispersal links the reproductive cycle of adult plants with the establishment of their offspring and is widely recognized as a process that has a profound effect on the structure of tree communities.Al-though ecologists as early as Darwin realized the importance of seed dispersal,the scientific study of seed rain did not gain momentum until the early 1980s.A considerable amount of seed rain research has been conducted since then.Here we focused on seed rain studies of woody plants in forests.Seed rain monitoring methods are introduced,including seedtrap set,seed collection,separation,and identification.We also review recent progress in these studies-temporal and spatial variation in seed rain(seasonal,intra-annual,and spa-tial variations),recruitment limitation and its role in species coexistence,testing the negative den-sity-dependent hypothesis,and comparisons between seed rain and later life history phases(soil seed bank,seedling,sapling and adult).We recommend that future studies should pay attention to conducting long-term seed rain monitoring,examining cross-site recruitment limitation,exploring whether negative den-sity-dependence at the earliest stages of regeneration is greater in the tropics than at higher latitudes,and de-veloping exciting new techniques including the analysis of stable isotope ratios and molecular genetic mark-ers.