Regeneration trends along climate gradients in Taxodium distichum forests of the southeastern United States

The development of relict vegetation at the edges of some ecosystems has taken place particularly in environments where the regeneration of foundational species is declining. As an important stage of regeneration in the Taxodium distichum, this study explored the relationship of cone volume and seed number across environmental gradients in the Mississippi River Alluvial Valley (MRAV) and northern Gulf of Mexico Coast (GOM) in a long-term network of forested wetlands (North American Baldcypress Swamp Network (NABCSN)) from 2007 to 2019. Resembling spheroids, the volumes of Taxodium distichum cones were based on the measured dimensions of the cones collected in swamps across southeastern environmental gradients. Cones with larger volumes also had larger numbers of seeds (r² = 0.423, F = 113.9, p