Pedoforms Microclimate and Seasonal Forest Structure in Médio Vale do Paraíba

Abstract

In the Rio de Janeiro State, the Atlantic Forest is restricted to small fragments, responsible for the maintenance of environmental services. These fragments occur on steep slopes dominated by concave and convex pedoforms, capable of changing the local microclimate conditions. To preserve these communities, it is necessary to determine the level of influence of these pedoforms on forests structure and species distribution. Thus, we performed a phytosociological study and installed a set of four sensors to determine the monthly mean of air temperature and relative humidity in concave and concave pedoforms. The forest structure and the microclimate averages are compared by the Levene's T-test. We observed differences between microclimatic average, importance value indexes (IVIs) and total height, indicating that microclime variations can influence the structure and composition of the tree community. However, these structure differences are punctual and insufficient to determine specific communities.

Leguminosae tree species diversity in coastal forests of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

“…Silva & Nascimento 2001;Carvalho et al, 2006;Nascimento & Lima 2008;Dan et al, 2010;Mauad 2010;Abreu et al, 2014;Souza 2015;Fortes et al, 2020); in the Southern Paraiba river basin region (e.g. Peixoto et al, 1995;Bloomfield 1997;Spolidoro 2001;Souza et al, 2007;Fernandes et al, 2012;Freitas & Magalhães 2014;Medeiros et al, 2020); and in the Cabo Frio Plant Diversity Center (CDVCF) (e.g. Sá 1992Sá , 2002Sá , 2006Araujo et al, 2009;Kurtz et al, 2009;Ribeiro & Lima 2009;Carvalho et al, 2018).…”