Structure and Diversity In Ombrophilous Forest in the Zona da Mata of Pernambuco

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the arboreal component of a Dense Ombrophilous Lowland Forest fragment through evaluations of richness, structure and diversity. For the sampling of this component, we implanted 40 sample units of 10 × 25 m. We measured all arboreal individuals who presented circumference at breast height ≥ 15 cm, 1.30 m from the ground level. The tree stratum presented 1324 individuals, 100 species, 64 genera and 38 families. The Fabaceae family had the highest wealth and Anacardiaceae was the most abundant. The Shannon index and Pielou equability were 3.60 nats.ind.-1 and 0.78, respectively, suggesting the existence of relevant ecological dominance in the community. The results of this work emphasize the ecological importance of this remnant for maintaining the local flora and fauna, also emphasizing the importance of preserving Atlantic Ombrophilous Forests, particularly in the Zona da Mata of Pernambuco.

Morphofunctional Ecology of Seedlings Found in a Tropical Rainforest Seed Bank, in the Northeast of Brazil

“…The family with the greatest richness was Melastomataceae. The high representation of Melastomataceae, especially Miconia, has also been found in other studies evaluating soil seed banks (FIGUEIREDO et al, 2014;SILVA et al, 2019), partly reflecting the influence of the established vegetation, since Melastomataceae was one of the families with the highest species richness in the floristic survey and phytosociological analysis of the adult tree vegetation in the study area (LIMA et al, 2019).…”

“…Among the seedlings that were identified at a specific level, Trema micrantha and Miconia holosericea were the species that were not part of the sampling of the floristic composition of the study area arboreal component (LIMA et al, 2019). In Brazil, Trema micrantha commonly occurs as an abundant species in the seed bank (CORREIRA;MARTINS, 2015;SILVA et al, 2019).…”

“…Helicostylis tomentosa was the only seedling with hypogeal and cryptocotylar germination and reserve cotyledons identified in the present study. As an adult, it is a late secondary species (LIMA et al, 2019) and it is abundant in the seedling bank in the study area. Cryptocotylar and hypogeal seedlings keep the reserve cotyledons protected, which could be more advantageous for these seedlings in natural conditions within the forest, being able to use the reserves during the establishment phase.…”

“…For soil sample removal, 38 subplots of 1 m² were delimited inside the 38 plots, installed along three transects to evaluate the arboreal component of the study area (LIMA et al, 2019). The soil samples were taken 50 cm from the vertices of these subplots.…”

“…The seedlings identified were classified according to the successional classification following the methodology proposed by Gandolfi et al (1995), who consider three main groups: pioneer species, early secondary and late secondary, in addition to unclassified species that do not fit into any of these three groups, either because of lack of studies or for being identified only as morphospecies. The successional classification was performed through observations of adult tree species identified in the field and in the study by Lima et al (2019) developed in the study area and also by bibliographic research.…”