ABSTRACT
Seed rain is estimated by setting out traps and periodically recording, by species, the number of seed falling into them. Soil seed banks are described by taking soil samples and determining by species the number of viable seed in them. The work of in a Maine spruce-fir forest and of in western Pennsylvania hardwoods show how species-variable seed bank dynamics influence the composition of tree regeneration, especially that resulting from disturbance. The most interesting and complex tree seed bank relationships in North America are found in southern Appalachian forests, a species-rich but investigatively neglected region. The turfy coat, filled with the decaying fibres of the roots of the trees and plants of the forest, all killed by the fire, becomes a kind of hot-bed, and seeds which had lain dormant for centuries, spring up and flourish in the mellow soil.
