The implicit assumption of trait-based community assembly research is that community trait structure reflects the influence of prior processes, such as environmental filtering or limiting similarity, on demographic rates. Thus, a relationship between survival rate and community structure rarely has been considered. Using data from 17 annual seedling censuses in the moist tropical forest of Barro Colorado Island, Panama, I will examine relationships between community trait structure in a certain year and survival rates of each individual seedling in the following years and discuss about important processes that shapes species distribution and abundance in this forest.