Defoliation effects on seed dispersal and seedling recruitment in a tropical rain forest understorey palm

1. Assessing the demographic effects of leaf area losses in perennial plants is important to determine popula-tion resilience to natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Yet, while impacts of defoliation on vital rates of adult plants have been well documented, consequences for seed dispersal and seedling recruitment have been barely explored. 2. Here, we assessed the effects of defoliation on fruit production, fruit/seed size, seed dispersal and seedling recruitment in populations of Chamaedorea ernesti-augustii, a tropical rain forest, understorey palm from Meso-america, whose leaves are exploited as a highly valuable non-timber forest product (NTFP). 3. Fruit size and seed production were quantified in mature palms that were subjected to 0 % (control), 25%, 50%, 75 % and 100 % experimental removal of standing leaves, applied every 6 months over 2 years. Seed dis-persal by birds and gravity, and seed predation by small vertebrates on the ground were also quantified. Rates of seedling recruitment were recorded in non-defoliated and ‘sterile ’ populations (75 % sustained defoliation and periodical removal of all produced fruits). Finally, a stochastic model was used to quantify the overall effect of defoliation on seedlings recruited from locally (i.e. dispersed by gravity) and immigrant produced seeds (i.e. dispersed by birds). 4. Increasing defoliation strongly reduced seed production. The probability of bird dispersal was positively cor