Weeding appeared to have little effect on seedling survival unlike other studies (Holl,
1998b). Two possible reasons for this have counteractive effects. Weeding in the early stages of
regeneration creates open areas that inhibit species that will not grow in direct sunlight. Unweeded
areas may reduce seedling survival due to competition from surrounding vegetation, which in some
cases was made up of densely packed grasses (Holl, 1998b).
23,453 bird-dispersed seeds, from at least 64 species were found in seed traps during the
course of the project. 36 of these species were not found to germinate at non-seed trap points.
Most of these were collected in small numbers and/or on very few occasions so overall input into the
non-traps sites is likely to have been very low. Seed predation may also have had an effect as it is
often naturally quite high (Holl, 1998) whereas predation from seed traps similar to those in this
project have been found to be low (Chapman and Chapman, 1999). Together with generally very low
germination rates in the wild (McClanahan and Wolfe, 1992) this probably explains why these species
were not found germinating. However, there are a few species where numerous seeds have been
collected but no germination observed.