Research progress on influencing factors of seedling establishment

Seedling establishment is the results of successful seed germination and seedling survival, which is the vulnerable and key stage of plant life cycle. A variety of factors might affect the survival of seedlings and then influence the distribution and abundance of the plant in the community. The present study discussed the concept of seedling and seedling establishment and summarized the effects of light, temperature, soil water regime, heterogeneous habitat, microhabitat, predation and digestion by animals and plant reproduction characters, litter, the pathogen and allelopathy on seedling establishment according to relative researches from home and abroad. This review will provide theory basement for further understanding the regeneration process of vegetation community and mechanism of community succession.