Cerrado Forests: Seasonal Forest and Cerradão

Abstract

The Cerrado biome presents different physiognomies distributed throughout several Brazilian states. Studies related to species distribution as direct environmental factors may subsidize forest restoration projects. The objective of this study wasto evaluate ecological and structural differences and determine the species distribution based on soil factors in two physiognomies types of Cerrado. Data sampling was conducted in the area of influence of the sugar cane industry in southwest of Goiás, Brazil. Soil samples were collected in those plots and analyzed chemically and psysically. The results of the soil characteristics were useful to verify if the species distribution correlate with soil patterns through canonical components analysis (CCA).The structural aspects were higher in the plots identified as seasonal forest. Although the Ecological aspects, such as species diversity, were higher in the cerradão. The CCA showed a positive correlation between the tree species distribution with physicochemical characteristics of soil. The analysis showed a positive correlation between the distribution of tree species and the physicochemical characteristics of the soil. A group of species was related to higher fertility in the soil and clay content. Another group was correlated with low fertility and higher sand content soils.

Chemical attributes of Brazilian Cerrado soil under different management systems

“…Forest ecosystems can be characterized as "closed systems" because their nutrient cycle is composed of small losses or relative gains, and high rates of internal cycling in the soil-plant system (Gama-Rodrigues, 2004;Martins et al, 2016;Pereira et al, 2017;Ferreira et al, 2017). The "open" systems, in turn, present high nutrient losses, and are represented mainly by agricultural systems, while the CLFI systems correspond to an intermediate situation (GamaRodrigues et al, 2004).…”