Resumen:
Seedling emergence and survival was monitored over 3 years in a holly woodland and the surrounding habitats, located in Central Spain. Ten random quadrats were established in each of the following microhabitats: inside the closed holly woodland, in small canopy gaps of this woodland, at the woodland edge, in the adjacent open grassland, under isolated fleshy-fruited shrubs in the grassland and in an adjacent oak woodland.
Seedling emergence was maximum in closed holly woodland, from 7 to 51 seedlings m−2, and in the gaps, from 3 to 40 seedlings m−2. At the edge and under the shrubs emergence was lower than in the holly woodland (between 1 and 4 seedlings m−2), while no germination was detected in the grassland microhabitat. Under the oak woodland canopy, seedling emergence was approx. 4 seedlings m−2. Survival after the first year following germination was low inside the holly woodland, from 0 to 2% under the closed holly canopy and from 0 to 8% in the canopy gap. Survival was higher at the edge (between 25 and 54%) and under the oak woodland (27%), while under the shrubs the mortality showed a high interannual variability (from 9 to 80%). Mortality inside the holly woodland was due to the com...