The predominant role of soil in determining species composition of fern communities in subtropical coastal forest ecosystems

Abstract

Ferns are an important component in the understorey of tropical forests and their distribution is influenced by several biotic and abiotic factors. At a regional scale, soil characteristics and canopy openness play an important role in fern species composition and richness, as well as in the abundance of individuals. Our objective was to compare the influence of edaphic conditions and vegetation structure on the abundance and distribution of fern communities in Atlantic forest and restinga forest. Our hypotheses were that fern species richness and diversity are higher in Atlantic forest than in restinga due to limiting conditions in this habitat and the composition of fern species in Atlantic forest differs from restinga, especially due to differences in edaphic conditions. A principal coordinates analysis was applied to ordinate sampling units in relation to the environmental variables and a permutational multivariate analysis of variance was used to test that environmental variables did not differ between the two vegetation types. Species richness was compared using rarefaction curves. The influence of abiotic variables in species composition and abundance was verified using canonical correspondence analysis. No differences were observed in species richness, diversity or dominance between vegetation types, although abundance was higher in restinga. Fern communities respond to edaphic conditions and vegetation structure variations between vegetation types, the soil playing a major role. A greater variety of habitats resulting from differences in soil drainage in restinga facilitates the co-existence of species with different ecological tolerance, increasing local diversity and compensating for limiting conditions in restinga.

Remoção de gasolina por um consórcio microbiano anaeróbio em um solo argiloso / Removal of gasoline by an anaerobe consortium in a clayey soil

“…É de fundamental importância ao processo de biorremediação de solos, conhecer sua estrutura, posto que sua composição está relacionada a fatores cruciais ao processo, tais como biodisponibilidade do contaminante, capacidade de retenção de água, disponibilidade de nutrientes e oxigênio e mobilidade do contaminante, dentre outros (RIZZO et al, 2008). Os solos com alto teor de argila se caracterizam por alta umidade e presença de cátions trocáveis (CARMES et al, 2019). Isto pode limitar o processo de transferência de massas do contaminante entre o solo e o microrganismo (SALIMNEZHAD et al, 2021).…”

Time will tell: Taxonomic and functional diversity of monilophyte ferns in native forests and abandoned silviculture systems

“…Additionally, soils with higher clay content, moisture, and organic matter support a higher number of fern species (Nóbrega et al., 2011; Silva et al., 2013). The topography (Cicuzza & Mammides, 2022), soil type (Suissa & Sundue, 2020), soil drainage (Carmes et al., 2019; Donoghue & Turner, 2022) and habitat fragmentation level (Osie et al., 2022) are also primary factors that affect monilophyte prevalence. On the other hand, human disturbance in habitats may lead to a decrease in monilophyte diversity (Donoghue & Turner, 2022; Oseguera‐Olalde et al., 2022).…”