A new study investigates the survival of seedlings in the tropical rainforest. Photo by Thomas Hesselberg.

One of the most striking differences between walking in a temperate and in a tropical forest is the much higher plant diversity in the latter. Whereas a typical temperate forest contains perhaps a few dozen different tree species at the maximum, a tropical forest can sustain up several hundred different species. However, how do the individual seed and seedlings from so many species manage to survive and thrive in the highly competitive environment of the rainforest? Of course the obvious answer is that most seeds do not survive, but some obviously do or the diversity would not be maintained. The botanists Alvares-Clare and Kitajima from the University of Florida have in a new study examined seed survival from a Tropical forest in Panama.

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