Influence of soil fertility on the distribution of tree species in a deciduous forest in the Triângulo Mineiro region of Brazil

Abstract

Dry semideciduous and deciduous forests occur only on calcium-rich soils and occupy almost 20% of the 200 million ha of the cerrado region of central Brazil. Other savanna physiognomies of woodlands and grasslands, and gallery forests generally occur on acid soils with low calcium levels. The literature on phytosociological aspects of such cerrado physiognomies is quite abundant whereas there is very little information on deciduous forests. Also lacking is information on soil fertility and its influence on species distribution. The objective of the present study was to study the distribution of native species within a dry deciduous forest in the Araguari river valley, Uberlâ ndia, Minas Gerais as related to soil properties. A 1-ha sampling area, with no apparent difference in physiognomy, was divided into fifty 10 m · 20 m plots arrayed in 10 · 5 grid and all trees with a minimum circumference of 15 cm at 1.30 m height were surveyed. A composite soil sample was collected from 0 to 10 cm depth in each plot and soil pH, organic C and nutrient availability were determined. Cluster analysis based on soil chemical properties showed the existence of two distinct groups of plots. Further field examinations revealed that the forest was situated in an area of transition between mica schist and basalt parent materials, without any apparent difference in the forest physiognomy. The basalt-derived soil in 23 plots had significantly higher availability of Ca (47.0 cmol(+) kg -1 soil), Mg (2.59), and K (0.96) than the mica schist derived soil (Ca-18.4, Mg-1.29, and K-0.66) in the remaining 27 plots, though both soils would be classified as eutrophic. A total of 59 species belonging to 27 families were encountered in the area as a whole, of which 36 were common to both soils. In total, 16 species occurred exclusively on the mica schist soil and 7 on the basaltic soil. Myracrodruon urundeuva Allem. (Anacardiaceae) and Tabebuia roseo-alba (Ridl.) Sandwith (Bignoniaceae) were species with high importance values in the forest as a whole. Though there was no significant difference in the diversity index between the two soils, the importance values of these species was larger in the basalt-derived soil with higher nutrient availability.Joã o Paulo De Souza is a scholarship holder of CNPq.

Environmental Factors Affecting the Abundance and Presence of Tree Species in a Tropical Lowland Limestone and Non-limestone Forest in Ben En National Park, Vietnam

“…A total of 18 sample plots from the two forest types were then analyzed, and two distinct data matrices consisting of the species matrix and the matrix of environment variables were set up as required by the multivariate analysis methods. The species matrix contained a count of the tree abundance per species/sample plot, where species with an abundance of less than 4 individuals were deleted (Pinto et al 2005;Souza et al 2007). The resulting samples from the species data matrix consisted of 29 species and 18 sample plots.…”

Solo, topografia, mortalidade e recrutamento de árvores na floresta tropical decidual

“…O uso de um critério de inclusão maior pode alterar as taxas de dinâmica e prejudicar a interpretação dos resultados (Felfili et al 2005 As condições abióticas também podem ser consideradas fatores responsáveis pelas diferenças atribuídas às variáveis de dinâmica por determinarem a distribuição de grupos específicos de espécies. Alguns estudos demonstram a forte ação sinérgica que estes fatores abióticos podem ter sobre a dinâmica das comunidades florestais, por exemplo, como a topografia altera a química do solo (Griffiths et al 2009) e como o solo altera a distribuição e dinâmica das espécies criando comunidades arbóreas distintas em uma unidade florestal (OliveiraFilho et al 1998;Souza et al 2007;Madelaine et al 2007;Higuchi et al 2008 (Felfili et al 2005), mas também ser dependente das condições pluviométricas ou histórico pluviométrico do local. As condições pluviométricas durante o tempo do estudo e desde 1991 não flutuaram radicalmente, sugerindo que a floresta experimenta uma situação sem grandes oscilações na disponibilidade hídrica, diferente do que ocorreu no ano de 1990 -anterior ao primeiro levantamento (T 0 ) -considerado um ano atípico, com uma baixa disponibilidade hídrica.…”

“…Outros estudos demonstram os efeitos das condições edáficas sobre as variáveis de dinâmica vegetal (Madelaine et al 2007;Higuchi et al 2008), a influencia da topografia nas características químicas do solo (Griffiths et al 2009) e como a variação edáfica afeta a distribuição e ocorrência das espécies vegetais (Souza et al 2007).…”

“…A floresta estacional decidual pode apresentar variações na composição da comunidade arbórea em unidades relativamente próximas, criando comunidades vegetais distintas numa mesma floresta (Souza et al 2007 Os dados de pluviosidade foram obtidos a partir do banco de dados da estação meteorológica do Laboratório de Climatologia e Recursos Hídricos, localizada no município de Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, para um período de 28 anos.…”

Environmental Factors Influencing Tree Species Regeneration in Different Forest Stands Growing on a Limestone Hill in Phrae Province, Northern Thailand

“…Our tree species matrix contained counts of individual tree species in the plots; species with fewer than four individuals/plot in all of the stands were excluded from the analysis (De Souza et al 2007;Magnago et al 2012;Nguyen et al 2015). Thus, our matrix included 28 species (Table 2) and 64 samples.…”