Sci-Comm: Holt Research Forest Annual Tree Seed Collection

Seed Trap at Holt Research Forest

Annual Tree Seed Collection

Did you know that tree seeds have been collected annually at Holt Research Forest since 1983? Our Annual Tree Seed Collection project is one of Holt Research Forest's most robust and longest-running data collection efforts. We initially collected annual litter and seed fall from 1983-1990 but stopped collecting litter because the volume of samples was too great to sort and measure effectively. We continue to collect tree seeds to provide estimates of each tree species' annual seed production.

Map of Holt Research Forest Annual Seed Collection stations.

Every year before the red maple seeds fall, we collect samples from over 260 ‘seed traps’ made of wire tomato cages and nylon netting. The seed traps are located along the S-1’s at 10m intervals and along the small mammal trapping transect lines. The S-1’s are two 600 m west-east transects, or straight lines, used to collect tree regeneration data in the northern and southern half of the study area. The small mammal trapping transect lines are six parallel north-south census lines initially used to collect data about small mammal population dynamics. Once collected, the Holt Research Forest Technicians sort and count each tree seed by species.

Holt Research Forest Technicians sort and count tree seeds.

Five datasets are available to download at the Holt Research Forest data archive on the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative (FEMC) website (https://www.uvm.edu/femc/data/archive/project/hrfseeds). The supporting documents/images section also provides a map of the seed trap stations and the Annual Tree Seed Collection instructions as PDF files. The datasets include leaf litter data from 1983-1990 and tree seed data from 1988-2012 and 2016-2022 and are available as CSV files (Table 1). Visit the Holt Research Forest data archive to learn more about our Annual Tree Seed Collection datasets and metadata!

Table 1. A list of all Annual Tree Seed Collection datasets and supporting documents/images available to download at the FEMC website.

File Name	File Type	Description
Litter Traps	CSV	1983-1990 seed collection data from 40 litter traps in the research grid. The objective of this dataset was to collect seed fall to determine seed abundance and litter fall to biomass production.
seedTraps-S1	CSV	1988-2013 collection data from 120 seed traps along S1 survey lines located west to east at 10m intervals. This dataset aims to determine the forest's seed production close to the sample sites for tree seedlings.
seedTraps-S1_2016-2022	CSV	2016-2022 collection data from 120 seed traps along S1 survey lines located west to east at 10m intervals. This dataset aims to determine the forest's seed production close to the sample sites for tree seedlings.
seedTraps-SM	CSV	1988-2013 seed counts by species from 144 seed traps located within 2m of small mammal transect trap stations. This dataset aims to determine seed production from locations adjacent to small mammal trap locations.
seedTraps-SM_2016-2021	CSV	2016-2021 seed counts by species from 144 seed traps located within 2m of small mammal transect trap stations. This dataset aims to determine seed production from locations adjacent to small mammal trap locations.
Map of Seed Trap Stations	PDF	Map of the seed trap stations on the S-1 and small mammal trapping lines.
Litter and Seed Production Studies	PDF	Instructions for seed counts from the Holt Research Forest methods manual.