Effects of dispersal‐ and niche‐based factors on tree recruitment in tropical wet forest restoration

Both dispersal‐ and niche‐based factors can impose major barriers on tree establishment. Our understanding of how these factors interact to determine recruitment rates is based primarily on findings from mature tropical forests, despite the fact that a majority of tropical forests are now secondary. Consequently, factors influencing seed limitation and the seed‐to‐seedling transition (STS) in disturbed landscapes, and how those factors shift during succession, are not well understood. We used a 3.5‐yr record of seed rain and seedling establishment to investigate factors influencing tree recruitment after a decade of recovery in a tropical wet forest restoration experiment in southern Costa Rica. We asked (1) how do a range of restoration treatments (natural regeneration, applied nucleation, plantation), canopy cover, and life‐history traits influence the STS and (2) how do seed and establishment limitation (lack of seed arrival or lack of seedling recruitment, respectively) influence ve...