Tropical dendrochronology applied to invasive tree species in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Abstract

The Atlantic Forest is one of the largest and most biodiverse rainforests of South America but anthropogenic activities are drastically changing these landscapes. The invasion of alien or exotic species is one of the greatest threats to biodiversity. There are few studies of invasive species in tropical Brazilian ecosystems. This research examines growth and ecological aspects of Syzygium cumini and Clitoria fairchildiana, two invasive tree species in the Pedra Branca State Park, an Atlantic Forest remnant in southeastern Brazil. Both species were successfully dated, indicating an average age of 58 and 31 years, respectively. A positive relationship between growth and precipitation of the previous growing season suggests an ecological adaptive strategy, which could be facilitating their invasion into the environment. Cumulative growth diameter curves indicate slow and fast growth rates for S. cumini and C. fairchildiana, respectively. Growth release episodes detected in the tree rings indicate increased anthropogenic disturbances over the last 50 years.

Biodiversidade e saúde na Estação Biológica Fiocruz Mata Atlântica: pesquisa, conservação e educação

“…As atividades foram realizadas mensalmente, durante 24 meses consecutivos, de janeiro de 2009 a dezembro de 2010, por 12h ininterruptas (18h às 06h), (SOUZA et al, 2019).…”

“…Nyssomyia intermedia apresentou quantidade superior, com um índice de 96% das espécies coletadas no ambiente do intradomicílio, peridomicílio e na mata na comunidade Caminho da Cachoeira (SOUZA et al, 2015(SOUZA et al, , 2019. longipalpis foi encontrada apenas em março, agosto, outubro e novembro (SOUZA et al, 2015).…”

“…intermedia entre as 22h e 01h35min. Isso coincide com o período que os moradores retornam de suas atividades profissionais, educacionais e religiosas, colocando-os em maior risco de adquirir a leishmaniose (SOUZA et al, 2019). Oficina para produção de telas de proteção com transferência de tecnologia social:…”

Defining invasive species and demonstrating impacts of biological invasions: a scientometric analysis of studies on invasive alien plants in Brazil over the past 20 years

“…In recent years, the mechanisms behind the invasiveness of plant species in the recipient environment have been widely addressed by studies on plant invasions (Fridley 2010;Van Kleunen et al 2010;Wang et al 2020). However, there are still several gaps in knowledge about the status of invasive plant establishment in natural areas (Hulme 2018), their impacts (Foxcroft et al 2019) and related measures for control (Weidlich et al 2020) and these gaps are even more evident in tropical biomes (Ackerman et al 2017;Pinto et al 2020;Xavier et al 2021).…”

Assessing the ecological impacts of invasive plants in Neotropical forests through evidence synthesis

“…For example, the very few studies in our review that had ecological data from forest sites before the invasion occurred were from permanent plot monitoring , which eventually encouraged research into the role of the invasive species in the native community. Whereas time series evaluations of impact shouldn't be constrained by the lack of exact records of when the invasion occurred, proxies can be useful to deal with uncertainty and distinguish between younger and older invasions, such as the density and size of invading individuals (Mesacasa et al, 2022), dendrochronology (Xavier et al, 2021), and remote sensing techniques (Paz-Kagan et al, 2019;Kozhoridze, Dor and Sternberg, 2022;Sabat-Tomala, Raczko and Zagajewski, 2022). While the age of the invasion may not be pertinent to answering certain research questions, it is encouraged that the temporal context should be more accounted for into invasion research, as changes in ecological and evolutionary processes affect the magnitude and direction of impact estimates (Strayer et al, 2006;Barney et al, 2015;Grove, Parker and Haubensak, 2017).…”