Abstract
J.A. Capito. Who planted the forest? Working with the Lacandón Maya community of Lacanjá Chansayab, Chiapas, Mexico to quantify the role of seed dispersal agents in tropical forest succession, 128 pages, 3 tables, 7 figures, 2023. APA style guide used.
Understanding seed dispersal relationships within a tropical forest are vital to determining the risks these systems face due to climate change as well as informing conservation and restoration. Working with the traditional ecological knowledge of the Lacandón Maya community of Lacanjá Chansayab, Chiapas, MX, we identified the dispersal agents of tree species throughout the seven successional stages of their agroforestry system. After completing both a network analysis and non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis methods, we found that earlier and the final successional stages exhibit strong abiotic dispersal mechanism influence, as shown by tree seedling presence. While, intermediate successional stage seedlings were established mainly by biotic dispersal mechanisms. Several dispersal agents and tree species documented during the study are species of conservation concern. Pairing conservation status information of trees and dispersal agents with documented seed dispersal relationships can help inform conservation efforts, restoration, and the sustainability of the Lacandón Maya agroecosystem.