Multiple soil-borne pathogens influence the short-term survival of Virola nobilis seedlings: implications for the maintenance of tropical forest diversity

According to the Janzen-Connell hypothesis, conspecific negative density dependence (CNDD) maintains the exuberant plant diversity observed in tropical rainforests. While the role of soilborne fungi in CNDD has been demonstrated with fungicide treatments, the causal agents of disease are rarely identified. For Virola nobilis (Family: Myristicaceae, syn. V. surinamensis) seed dispersal, distance-dependent seed predation and negative plant-soil feedbacks at the seedling stage are well described, making this species a valuable model to study CNDD at those life stages. This study identified soil pathogens infecting V. nobilis seedlings their impacts on seedlings, and their spatial distribution.