Diversidade de espécies arbóreas e sua relação com o histórico de perturbação antrópica em uma paisagem urbana da Floresta Atlântica

Abstract

The urbanization process is one of the major agents in society transformation, with direct reflex on global biodiversity. The largest urbanization global expansion in natural environments, expected until 2030, will occur from the conversion of natural environments to urban areas in South America. The changes generated by urban settings fragment forests, hinder their connectivity, alter microclimate conditions and modify physical and biological balance, directly impacting on the structure, wealth and diversity of the forest ecosystem. Considering the importance of urban forests to the maintenance of biodiversity, this paper aims to analyze how alfa and beta diversity patterns vary in urban forest communities, relating to its disturbance history. The study took place in the mesoregion of Zona da Mata Mineira, in the microregion of Juiz de Fora, in the cities of Juiz de Fora, Lima Duarte, Rio Preto and Santos Dumont. All live arboreal individuals (DBH ≥ 5 cm) in twelve forest fragments were sampled, being 10 plots of 20 x 20m randomly allocated, totaling 120 plots. The fragments were classified according to the different levels of disturbance, history of human impact, types of disturbance and current structure; they were assorted in four forest settings with shared features (control, relict, abandoned agriculture and earthwork). From the results, it was possible to notice a clear pattern of grouping among the four forest settings; the values of wealth and diversity and equitability rates varied according to the impact endured, obtaining higher values in the most preserved fragments and lower in those which suffered with major human influence. The beta diversity analysis showed a low number of shared species, revealing great floristic heterogeneity in urban forest environments. The grouping analysis showed that forest environments reflect great changes caused by urban settings, depicted by groups with great autocorrelation. Regardless of alterations built by human urban settings, these urban fragments hold important alfa and beta diversity from the regional arboreal flora. Knowledge of urban rainforests biodiversity is essential to subsidize protection measures, preservation and recovery of regional biota.