Organização e estrutura das comunidades vegetais de cerrado em um gradiente topografico no Brasil central

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

1993

RESUMO

Several lines of evidence suggest that the variation in Cerrado physiognomy is determined and maintained by fire. The objective of this study was to determine and describe pattems indicating that after 19 yr of fire protection, the Cerrado vegetation developed to a high density and cover mature vegetation. The hypothesis of this study was that protected Cerrado converges to a mature vegetation irrespective of habitat. Wood plant especies composition and abundance were sampled in three plots across slope. Across the slop the number of plant family, number of genus, number of individuals, number of stems, basal area, increased. Direct gradient analysis indicated different distributional patterns for species, but two ecological groups of species with similar abundance behavior could be recognized. Results of Detrend Correspondence Analysis (DCA) showed that despite different localization, stands have high similarity in ordination space, suggesting convergent development. The convergent community was characterized by high basal area, species richness and number of zoochoric species, The presence of shrub/tree clusters was also characteristic of this community. Reciprocal Averaging ordination showed that these cluster produced a strong shift in the species composition and abundance spatially. The vegetation changes after 19 yr of fire protection were studied using DCA among disturbed (burned) and protected communities across the slope. Euclidean Distance between disturbed and post disturbed samples in ordination space was used to compare community, recovery or resilience. Ordination through time for plant communities revealed convergence of successional pathways at different sites on the slope. Resilience varied among plant communities, but was lowest for the rich upslope community on dry soils, and highest for less diverse dowslope community on wetter soils. Another study determined the relative importance of vegetative reproduction in Cerrado communities. The results showed that it occurred in 59% of plant species, irrespective of site. Half of these species (51%) had stems within 0,1 m distance, and remaining 49% with stems between 0,1-1,4 m on the average. Some species presented stem between 1,0 m(Pouteria torta) and 2,5 m (pterodon pubescens). The vegetative stems increased upslope in the communities and populations. Rare and occasional species presented more stems per individual, on the average, than did common species. These results indicate (1) The Cerrado communities when protected from fire developed and converge to a closed woodland irrespective of habitat, (2) the presence of clusters of tree/shrub could have a role in the community development, and (3) vegetative reproduction has a fundamental role in the structure, development and stability of this plant community

ASSUNTO(S)

planalto central cerrados fogo e ecologia comunidades vegetais

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