Non-valuable
plants growing in these gaps would be selected against through periodic
slashing. Such a situation would favor the establishment of valuable fruit
trees which are usually large seeded, poorly dispersed, and need an opening
for growth to reproductive size. Cousens [1965] and Poore [1968] suggest
that shifts in the size frequency distribution of gaps (due to climatic fluctuations
in their examples) in a given rainforest can affect the relative regeneration
successes of different tree species.