Abstract ID: 3.11883 | Accepted as Talk | Talk | TBA | TBA

The intermittent availability of certain tree seeds has preoccupied people for thousands of years, yet we lack a comprehensive overview of available seed monitoring methods. Currently, these methods are scattered in the literature, making it a challenge to get an overview of their advantages and shortcomings, as each method has different characteristics that need to be considered before setting up long-term monitoring.
The interest in seed monitoring is currently reinforced by policy, tree species shift, increasing awareness of the links between seed production and public health, and the demand for seed and recruitment data needed to model the impact of the climate crisis on forest dynamics.
Our aim here is to inform people potentially interested in seed monitoring about different options and their specific applicability in mountain forests. We present a variety of commonly used seed monitoring methods, as well as some niche and possible future ones, and discuss their characteristics with a focus on mountain areas. Understanding different monitoring methods is fundamental for asking the right question (if you have data) and for choosing the right method to answer a specific question (if you do not yet have data). For closing the loop, we offer inspiration for moving beyond seed monitoring to full life cycle monitoring and discuss ways to link seed data to other long-term ecological data.