O fogo é um distúrbio recorrente em muitas áreas da Chapada Diamantina, geralmente originado por ação antrópica e que ocasiona rápidas mudanças nas comunidades. Este trabalho objetiva conhecer a composição e estrutura da vegetação de uma área de campo rupestre recém-queimada no Parque Nacional da Chapada Diamantina, Bahia, Brasil, situada entre 700 e 800 m acima do nível do mar, visando discussão das estratégias de regeneração das espécies mais conspícuas e das similaridades florísticas entre áreas com e sem distúrbio recente de fogo. Foi realizado um censo das espécies de plantas vasculares ocorrentes em 16 parcelas de 10x10 m, sendo as coberturas estimadas em cinco subparcelas de 2x2 m de cada parcela. Foram encontradas 85 espécies de 34 famílias, sendo 11 de monocotiledôneas, 22 de eudicotiledôneas e uma de monilófita. A espécie mais abundante foi Panicum trinii Kunth (Poaceae) e a mais frequente Periandra mediterranea (Vell.) Taub. (Fabaceae). O índice de Shannon foi 3,4. A área estudada agrupou-se com a área de afloramento rochoso em altitude menos elevada (38% de similaridade). É possível que o fogo seja mais frequente nessas áreas menos isoladas, em relação às dos topos de morros. As espécies dominantes se restabeleceram principalmente a partir de gemas de sistemas subterrâneos e aéreos. Uma das espécies mais frequentes, Dactylaena microphylla Eichler, estabeceu-se de sementes. Espécies endêmicas sensíveis à ação do fogo sobrevivem em ilhas de vegetação nos afloramentos rochosos.

A transect was used to examine the environmental and biological descriptors of a compact vegetation mosaic in the Chapada Diamantina in northeastern Brazil, including the floristic composition, spectrum of plant life forms, rainfall, and soil properties that defined areas of cerrado (Brazilian savanna), caatinga (seasonally dry tropical forest thorny, deciduous shrub/arboreal vegetation) and cerrado-caatinga transition vegetation. The floristic survey was made monthly from April/2009 to March/2012. A dendrogram of similarity was generated using the Jaccard Index based on a matrix of the species that occurred in at least two of the vegetation types examined. The proportions of life forms in each vegetation type were compared using the chi-square test. Composite soil samples were analyzed by simple variance (ANOVA) to examine relationships between soil parameters of each vegetation type and the transition area. The monthly precipitation levels in each vegetation type were measured and compared using the chi-square test. A total of 323 species of angiosperms were collected distributed in 193 genera and 54 families. The dendrogram demonstrated strong difference between the floristic compositions of the cerrado and caatinga, sharing 2% similarity. The chi-square test did not demonstrate any significant statistical differences between the monthly values of recorded rainfall. The organic matter and clay contents of the soilsin the caatinga increased while sand decreased, and the proportions of therophyte, hemicryptophyte, and chamaephyte life forms decreased and phanerophytes increased. We can therefore conclude that the floristic composition and the spectrum of life forms combined to define the cerrado and caatinga vegetation along the transect examined, with soil being the principal conditioning factor determining the different vegetation types, independent of precipitation levels.Keywords: Savanna, seasonally dry tropical forest, biological spectrum, soil, rainfall. Quais são os fatores mais importantes na determinação de diferentes tipos de vegetação na Chapada Diamantina, Brasil? ResumoFoi estabelecida uma transecção para examinar descritores ambientais e biológicos em uma área compacta de vegetação em mosaico na Chapada Diamantina, Nordeste do Brasil. A composição florística, espectro de formas de vida, precipitação e propriedades do solo foram avaliadas na transecção entre cerrado (savana brasileira) e caatinga (floresta tropical sazonalmente seca espinhosa, vegetação arbustivo-arbórea decídua), separados por vegetação de transição cerrado-caatinga. O levantamento florístico foi realizado mensalmente de abril de 2009 a março de 2012. Foi feita análise de agrupamento a fim de determinar a similaridade entre as fisionomias de cerrado, a caatinga e a transição cerrado-caatinga. As proporções de formas de vida foram comparadas utilizando o teste qui-quadrado. Amostras compostas de solo foram analisadas por variância simples (ANOVA) testando a existência de diferenças entre os solos de cada tipo de vegetação....

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We investigated flowering phenology in a semiarid macroclimate along an environmental gradient encompassing neotropical savanna, transition, and seasonally dry tropical forest (SDTF) areas in the Chapada Diamantina Mountains, northeastern Brazil. We expected to find divergence in flowering patterns between the plant communities studied that would be explained by distinct functional traits selected by differences in rainfall volumes and soil properties. Bud and flower productions were monitored in 809 individuals between January 2010 and March 2012. The savanna exhibited a continuous flowering pattern, while the transition and SDTF areas showed seasonal flowering associated with rainfall. Environmental variables and plant traits (wood densities, water potentials, and water storage capacities) were related to the observed flowering strategies of woody species. The high diversity of functional groups in the savanna was determined by higher plant water potentials that were related to low wood densities and the availability of soil water. The role of rainfall, especially the rainfall volumes during the dry season, is critical in defining different flowering patterns at the community level. The physical properties of the soil selected the presence of species with distinct water-use strategies (low wood density species in savanna areas, and high wood density species in the transition zone and forest), which in turn affected their flowering.

Phenological diversity, seasonality and leaf longevity may affect leaf habits, reflecting plant responses to environmental conditions. Maprounea guianensis Aubl. is a widespread species in Brazil that is associated with different forest types. We investigated how phenological diversity, seasonality and leaf longevity affect leaf habits of its populations growing in humid and dry forests in the Chapada Diamantina mountains. We made monthly observations of leaf budding and fall in 62 individual trees between 2004 and 2012 (84 months), estimating leaf longevity based on phenophase evaluations. We made use of circular statistics, cross correlations and the Shannon–Wiener Index to evaluate our data. There was little variation in rainfall distribution between the study years, although water availability differed at each site. Phenophase seasonality was found to be negatively correlated with rainfall but positively correlated with photoperiod. Low phenological diversity was observed within each site, but not between sites, and leaf longevity was reduced in the dry forest. Although macroclimatic conditions were similar throughout the range of occurrence of M. guianensis in the region, we found that phenological behaviour and leaf longevity differed according to micro-site differences, demonstrating the plasticity of the species, which may favour its occupation of different environments.