[Seed rain, soil seed bank, and natural regeneration of natural Toona ciliata var. pubescens forest].

Taking the natural Toona ciliata var. pubescens forest in the Jiujiangshan National Nature Reserve in Jiangxi Province of China as test object, an investigation was conducted on the seed rain, soil seed bank, and seedlings number in 2008-2011. The seed rain of the forest was dispersed from late October to the end of December. In 2010, the seed rain intensity in different sampling plots was in the order of Xiagongtang observatory (320.3 +/- 23.5 seeds x m(-2)) > Xiagongtang protection station (284.7 +/- 24.2 seeds x m(-2)) > Daqiutian protection station (251.6 +/- 24.7 seeds x m(-2)), and the quantity of the intact seeds in soil supplied for seed germination and regeneration was 222.0, 34.3, and 22.6 seeds x m(-2), respectively. The seed bank reserves was affected by the seed production amount, bird feeding, and seed viability, etc., of which, bird feeding was the prime factor for the substantial drop of the seed bank reserves. Due to the low resistance against storage and a large number of rot during storage, the seeds in soil could hardly be effectively stored beyond one month. The seedlings germinated in December were averagely less than 2 stands x m(-2), and the soil seed reserves in the next January was the least (6.7-11.8 seeds x m(-2)), with the germinated seedlings averagely 0.4-0.6 stands x m(-2), which was consistent with the rare distribution of natural seedlings in the forest. It was concluded that the small seed rain reserves, low seed vigor of soil seed bank, and low seedling establishment were the important factors impacting the natural regeneration of T. ciliata var. pubescens.