[Recruitment limitations of native tree species under plantations: a preliminary review]

The ecosystem service of plantation is inferior to that of native forest, but it is difficult for local and native species to colonize and establish under plantations. Therefore, how to improve the plantations to facilitate their succession to native or secondary forest is a bottleneck restricting the sustainability of forestry. Based on an introductory description of the principles of establishment limitation, this paper summarized the recruitment limitations in forest regeneration and restoration, with respects to the species characteristics, time of limitation occurrence, and other affecting factors. It was considered that the major determinants of local species colonization were the probability of seeds arrival and the environmental conditions. Based on the theories of forest restoration, it was suggested that the factors affecting the survival of seeds and seedlings in plant regeneration at different spatiotemporal scales should be integrated.