INFLUENCE OF ACICULAS DEPOSITION ON NATURAL REGENERATION IN SUB-WOODS OF Pinus taeda L. FOREST STAND

Abstract

This study was conducted in a commercial forest stand of Pinus taeda L. located in Curitibanos, in the State of Santa Catarina, Brazil. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of the physical barrier caused by the deposition of aciculas, on natural regeneration mechanisms of native species in sub-woods of P. taeda L. forest stand. Three plots (10 x 10 m) were installed in the sub-woods of the forest stand, and the natural regeneration was evaluated in the control (presence of aciculas) and clean (absence of aciculas) subplots, in addition to the seeds rain and soil seeds bank. The density and frequency parameters (absolute and relative) and the Shannon-Weaver Index (H’) were calculated, and the total density values of the seeds rain and seeds bank were subjected to ANOVA (p<0.05), while the density of regenerative seedlings was subjected to Student’s t Test (p<0.05), using the Software R Studio ®. The density of regenerative seedlings (ind.m-2) was higher in clean subplots, statistically. No significant statistical difference was observed for the density parameter (ind.m-2) among the subplots for the soil seeds bank, but only for the seeds rain. Shannon Diversity Index was higher in the plots closer to the fragment in all evaluated mechanisms. The obtained results indicate that the litter layer acts as a physical barrier to the breeding of the seeds bank and prevents the arrival of the seeds rain propagules directly to the soil, hindering the establishment of native plants and, consequently, the natural regeneration in the sub-woods.

Invasive alien species in protected areas: the dynamics of Pinus taeda at Rio Canoas State Park – Brazil

“…The production of seeds found at PAERC can be an important factor for invasive success of P. taeda. A similar pattern, in which a peak in seed rain occurs around the months of April/May, with year round seed rain has been found in other studies in the Atlantic Forest (Bechara et al 2013(Bechara et al , 2014Fockink et al 2020).…”

“…The annual volume of Pinus taeda seed dispersion found in this study (125,000 seeds/ha/year in EPI and 404,000 seeds/ha/year in EIV) is lower than that obtained by Bechara et al (2013; with 2 million Pinus elliotti seeds/ha/year, or that of Fockink et al (2020) with 750.000 Pinus taeda seeds/ha/year. However, studies in the literature have recorded seed rain values in areas adjacent to forestry stands where the density of P. taeda is higher than that found in PAERC.…”

Trade‐offs at applying tree nucleation to restore degraded high Andean forests in Colombia

“…Our study shows that passive restoration is a promising alternative in logged pine plantations, even if factors like pine needles (Fockink et al 2019), or low levels of soil organic matter (Tulande et al 2018) are not manipulated. Likewise, it confirms that the main filter for natural recovery at pine plantations would be light availability (Baruch et al 2016).…”

Role of soil fauna to litter decomposition in pine stands under Atlantic Forest biome

“…However, there is no sufficient information about the role of macro and mesofauna groups in pine litter breakdown. Preview studies have shown the effects of Pinus species to understory plant species (FOCKINK et al, 2020) and soil invertebrates' community (ORTIZ et al, 2021) in pine plantation and invasions, which point impacts for ecosystems where Pinus spp. are non-native.…”