Species composition of climbers in seasonal semideciduous forest fragments of Southeastern Brazil

Abstract

In this study we evaluated floristic composition patterns of communities of climbers within ten inventories carried out in semideciduous forest fragments of southeastern Brazil. One of the inventories is original, being carried out for the present study in Ribeirão Cachoeira forest, Campinas, São Paulo State, Southeastern Brazil. This inventory was then pooled together to other nine climbers' inventories made in other forests of Southeastern Brazil to form a data base, which was examined regarding species richness, similarity, species distribution and climbing methods. The total number of species obtained was 355, belonging to 145 genera and 43 families. The ten most diverse families Bignoniaceae (45 species), Fabaceae (42), Malpighiaceae (36), Asteraceae (31), Apocynaceae (29), Sapindaceae (28), Convolvulaceae (21), Cucurbitaceae (14), Passifloraceae (10), and Euphorbiaceae (8) contributed to 74.4% of the total number of species recorded. The commonest climbing method in the studied sites was main stem or branch twining, accounting for 178 species or 50.1% of the total, the second commonest was tendril climbing (121 species, 34.1%), and the least, scrambling (56 species, 15.8%). We found a high percentage of exclusive species i.e., those occurring in only one forest site, which accounted for 49.3% of the total recorded. The mean similarity among forest sites (30%) may be considered low. The climbing species contribution to the total wood plant richness recorded on the forests sites was very high in some of the sites (up to 52.5%). These results indicated the importance of climber communities to plant diversity for semideciduous forests in Southeastern Brazil, enhancing the regional diversity and the conservation value of these forest remnants.

Checklist of climbing plants in an Araucaria forest of Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil

“…When analyzing climbing mechanisms combining them in four major groups (joining stem twiner species with petiole twiner and secondary shoot twiner; tendril species with clasp tendril and adhesive tendril species; scrambler species with hook/spine species; and the adherent root species), as commonly seen in studies that classify the species' climbing mechanisms (e.g. Santos et al 2009), the Fisher's exact test showed a significant result (P = 0.02). …”

“…Our sites comparison is more detailed in relation to forest types, showing that the Semideciduous forests that are geographically close and present a mixture of floristic contingents of different origins (Waechter 2002) are more similar to Deciduous forests than Araucaria/Atlantic forests. It is noteworthy, as cited by Santos et al (2009) that any species richness comparison between these surveys should be done with some caution, since they differ in sampled area and time effort and some studies may be underestimating the real richness of the study areas.…”

Enriquecimento de floresta em restauração por meio de semeadura direta de lianas

“…Elas constituem um importante componente da estrutura da floresta tropical, com mais de 25% da diversidade de espécies lenhosas (Gentry 1991, Addo-Fourdjour 2009. Particularmente na Floresta Estacional Semidecidual, onde já foram encontradas até 148 espécies de trepadeiras (Udulutsch et al 2004), podendo corresponder a 52,5% da riqueza de espécies lenhosas (Santos et al 2009). …”

Caracterização florística, fitossociológica e fenológica de trepadeiras de mata ciliar da Fazenda Campininha, Mogi Guaçu, SP, Brasil

“…A alta diversidade de plantas de hábito trepador em florestas tropicais, particularmente aquelas fragmentadas ou perturbadas, tem chamado a atenção por constituírem um componente que contribui significativamente na composição e estrutura das sinúsias fl orestais (Barros et al 2009, Santos et al 2009, Rubim et al 2010.…”

“…No Brasil, os trabalhos para essa forma de vida abordam, principalmente, estudos fl orísticos (Morellato & Leitão Filho 1996, Udulutsch et al 2004, Rezende & Ranga 2005, Tibiriçá et al 2006, Santos et al 2009, Villagra & Romaniuc Neto 2010 e, com menor frequência, estudos ecológicos (Lombardi et al 1999, Hora & Soares 2002.…”