Fire has been one of the main causes of diversity loss in tropical forests. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of fire on the seed bank in a seasonal semideciduous forest fragment, and to verify whether these impacts are influenced by distance from the edge. The study was carried out at Caetetus Ecological Station (São Paulo state, Brazil). Surface soil samples (5 cm depth) were collected at two different distances from the edge (0-20 and 20-50 m), five days after fire. The same sampling procedure was applied to an unburned neighboring forest for comparison. In the unburned forest, density was 257 seeds.m² and in the burned area it was 97 seeds.m². Forty species occurred in the unburned forest and 26 species in the burned area. Relative density of herbs and grasses was higher in the burned area. The closer to the border, the higher were the losses observed for tree species, likely amplified by the interaction between fire and edge effects.
seed bank; edge effects; fire; tropical forest; germination
