Resident species with larger size metrics do not recruit more offspring from the seed bank in old-field meadow vegetation

1. According to the traditional ‘Size Advantage’ (SA) hypothesis, plant species with larger body size are expected to be more successful when competition is intense, i.e. within severely crowded vegetation. Recent studies in old-field habitats, however, have shown that those species with greater numerical abundance as resident plants generally have a relatively small minimum reproductive threshold size (MIN), not a relatively large maximum potential body size (MAX). 2. In this study, we test for a size advantage in terms of species abundance representation in the soil seed bank, and we extend the SA hypothesis to include two additional size metrics: leaf size and seed size. Specifically, we ask, for resident species within a crowded old-field meadow: is larger seed size, leaf size, and/or body size associated with greater reproductive / recruitment success (i.e. number of germinable seeds within — and establishing plants emerging from — the soil seed bank)? We collected soil cores ...