Abstract:

Sprouting is a part of the“regeneration niche”and a highly evolutionarily labile trait for plants．Sprout regeneration is an efficient mechanism for forest regeneration to regain lost biomass after disturbances，and has the important ecological function in regulating individual life history strategies of plants，and restoring secondary vegetation following intense disturbances，as well as maintaining species composition and structure of community．Sprouting is a complex ecophysiological process．The sprouting ability of plant is not only affected by its exterior habitat，disturbances and resources level，but also controlled by its interior nutrient level and hormone situation．This paper reviewed six hypotheses on the mechanism of sprout formation．The biogeographic hypothesis suggests that different biogeographic communities have different number of sprouters，and there are more sprouters in tropical forest sites than that in temperate sites．The habitat hypothesis indicates that trees in different environment have different resprouting ability．And the nutrition hypothesis considers that the soil，the coarse roots and the taproots are the main nutrient sources for sprouting．From the viewpoint of disturbance hypothesis，disturbance types，intensity and frequency are usually considered to be the important determinant of resprouting in woody communities．The resource allocation hypothesis states that resprouting requires resources for supporting sprout after disturbances such as fire or cutting．Resprouting ability is regulated by level of hormone in tree，and auxins (IAA) and cytokinins are two groups of growth regulators to promote development of stem buds and shoots in the light of hormone regulating hypothesis．Finally，some propositions in this research field were made to offer the references for further studies．

Key words: sprouting regeneration, ecophysiological mechanism, persistence niche, disturbances