Potential of the seedling community of a forest fragment for tropical forest restoration

Abstract

Forest restoration projects are usually planted with a reduced number of species as compared to standing forests, largely due to the low availability of native species in seedling nurseries. In the present study, the potential of the native seedling community as a source of seedlings for forest restoration is analyzed. To do so, the seedling community from a forest fragment located in the southeast of Brazil was evaluated. Individuals (tree and shrub species) up to 30 cm height were measured and identified in 20 4 × 4 m plots. Altogether, 6,136 individuals (17 individuals m -2 ) belonging to 119 species were sampled. The seedling community showed a spatial heterogeneity with respect to the density of individuals and composition of species, and also a spatial aggregation for the 10 most abundant species. Several species that occurred in high densities in the seedling community are not presently available in regional forest nurseries and are therefore not used in restoration projects. This result and the high number of individuals and species found in the fragment suggest a great potential of this type of forest remnants as a source of highly diverse seedling banks for use in restoration projects. Key words: ecological restoration, natural regeneration, transplants, seedling production, forest nurseries POTENCIAL DA COMUNIDADE DE PLÂNTULAS DE UM FRAGMENTO FLORESTAL PARA A RESTAURAÇÃO DE FLORESTAS TROPICAISRESUMO: Devido à baixa disponibilidade de mudas nos viveiros florestais, os projetos de restauração florestal são freqüentemente implantados com um número reduzido de espécies. Avaliou-se o potencial da comunidade de plântulas como fonte de mudas para a restauração florestal. Para tanto, a comunidade de plântulas de um remanescente florestal localizado no Sudeste do Brasil foi avaliada. Indivíduos arbustivos ou arbóreos com até 30 cm foram medidos e identificados em 20 parcelas de 4 × 4 m cada. Ao todo foram amostrados 6.136 indivíduos (17 indivíduos m -2 ), pertencentes a 119 espécies. A comunidade estudada apresentou heterogeneidade espacial em relação à densidade de indivíduos e a composição de espécies e agregação espacial para as 10 espécies mais abundantes. Várias espécies encontradas em alta densidade na comunidade de plântulas não estão disponíveis nos viveiros florestais regionais e, portanto, não são utilizadas em projetos de restauração. Esse resultado e a presença de um alto número de indivíduos e espécies no fragmento florestal sugerem um alto potencial desses tipos de remanescentes como bancos de plântulas com alta diversidade, disponíveis para uso em projetos de restauração. Palavras-chave: restauração ecológica, regeneração natural, transplantes, produção de mudas, viveiros florestais

Wood vegetation in Atlantic rain forest remnants in Sorocaba (São Paulo, Brazil)

“…These taxa are some of the most diverse families in Brazil (especially with regard to large woody species), and our findings are consistent with several studies conducted in the state of São Paulo (Assumpção et al 1982;Leitão-Filho 1987 al. 2004;Zipparro et al 2005;Oliveira and Godoy 2007;Pereira-Silva et al 2007;Franco et al 2007;Guaratini et al 2008) and more specifically in the administrative region of Sorocaba (Ivanauskas and Rodrigues 1999;Ishara et al 2008;Viani and Rodrigues 2009) on formations of SSF and Cerrado.…”

Natural regeneration of trees species in the understory of Eucalyptus saligna Sm., Caieiras, SP

“…Nesse sentido, compreender o processo de regeneração natural, pode ser um subsídio fundamental para o manejo, restauração e conservação dos ecossistemas (TEIXEIRA et al, 2014). Muitos trabalhos recentes mostram a regeneração natural da vegetação nativa em sub-bosque de eucalipto, fragmentos e remanescentes florestais (SARTORI et al, 2002;SILVA JÚNIOR et al, 2004;ARAUJO et al, 2004;NERI et al, 2005;SOUZA-FILHO et al, 2007;GONÇALVES et al, 2008;VIANI;RODRIGUES, 2009;ONOFRE et al, 2010;CHAMI et al, 2011;CALEGARI et al, 2013;AVILA et al, 2013;CORRÊA et al, 2014;TEIXEIRA et al, 2014).…”

The restoration species pool for restoring tropical landscapes: assessment of the largest Brazilian supply chain

“…12.651/2012) (details in Brancalion et al 2016a). Second, we considered only the rainy season of 2015/2016 and species richness may be even higher if a longer period is evaluated, as flowering and fruiting periods have interannual variability (Morellato et al 2001; Viani & Rodrigues 2009; Brancalion et al 2012a). Third, few nurseries adopt good identification practices such as the collection of voucher specimens for depositing in herbaria and examination by professional botanists.…”

“…There are 40 to 53 thousand tree species within the tropics (Slik et al 2015) and at least 30 thousand seed plant species in Brazil (Forzza et al 2012; BFG 2015); as expected, there is not enough knowledge on their biology and current distribution. The challenge goes further when considering the process of harvesting propagules for viable seeds and seedlings’ production, restrained by the reduced and degraded forest cover, lack of information on species reproductive biology and phenological patterns, unskilled labor and deficient technical capacity and assistance (Gregorio et al 2004; Viani & Rodrigues 2009; Brancalion et al 2012a; Palma & Laurance 2015; Dedefo et al 2017; Jalonen et al 2018; White et al 2018). Despite these setbacks, representation of regional plant diversity is essential to consolidate a native plant market offering an adequate restoration species pool (i.e.…”