Sucessão vegetacional sobre solo oligotrófico na floresta atlântica nordestina

Abstract

Studies about secondary succession are becoming more relevant front of the accentuated level of natural environments degradation, however, in many environments, such studies are scarce, especially in tropical oligotrophic sandy soils. This study aimed to understand the successional processes of tropical vegetation on sandy soils, comparing the found with preexisting succession models on oligotrophic temperate areas, and describe the effect of interactions between species in the colonization dynamics of space. Three researches were conducted, in the first and second, we compared floristic composition of shrubs and trees, vegetation structure and spatial associations between dominant and non-dominant species of three fragments with different times of post-fire regeneration (5, 17 and 30 years) of a vegetation known as White Sands within the Serra de Itabaiana National Park, Sergipe, Brazil. In the third research evaluated the association between pioneer species and other species of the community in the formation of bushes in the fragment with 17 years of regeneration. For the first two studies, we used the plot method for sampling of individuals with stem diameter at ground level greater than nine centimeters and all individuals were referenced to cartesian coordinates with respect to an apex of the plot. The White Sands succession followed the model species substitution and regeneration recruitment by seed, eliminating the possibility of high levels of plant resistance to fire. The spatial distributions of species showed intraspecific aggregations at small scales, as probable effect of the limited distribution of seedlings. The dominant species is not distributed according to the Hypothesis of Spatial Segregation, and the non-dominant species were not associated positively with the dominant species, excluding the effect of facilitation positive interactions between dominant and non-dominant woody species. For the third study, census was conducted in bushes formed from four pioneer species and compared with areas without these species, evaluating the effect of the identity of pioneer species and species composition in the shade of bushes. Noted the existence of generalist facilitation relations that contribute to local biodiversity, and the difference in potential facilitation among species.