| Seedling mortality in forests is the net result of an array of processes that vary spatially and temporally. We quantified emergence and mortality of seedlings at monthly intervals for two years, in a forest situated in the transition zone between the Mediterranean and temperate regions of Chile. We aimed to determine if survival of species responded differentially to seasonal water availability, to the spatial variation in light availability and to seedling density. The commonest species in the seedling bank were the Mediterranean-climate species Cryptocarya alba (61%) and the temperate-climate species Aextoxicon punctatum (29%). 279 of the 504 new seedlings that emerged during the two-year study died during the same period, corresponding to 55,4%... |
