Disturbance plays a key role in driving ecological responses by creating opportunities for new ecological communities to assemble and by directly influencing the outcomes of assembly. Legacy effects, such as seed banks, and environmental filters can both influence community assembly, but their effects are impossible to separate with observational data. Here, we used seeding experiments in sites covering a broad range of post-disturbance conditions to tease apart the effects of seed availability, environmental factors, and disturbance characteristics on early community assembly after fire. We added seed of four common boreal trees to experimental plots in 55 replicate sites in recently burned areas of black spruce forest in NW North [...]
