Aspectos ecológicos da comunidade arbórea em um trecho de Floresta Atlântica com predominância de palmito-juçara (Euterpe edulis Martius)

Abstract

The Botanic Garden - UFJF area has a history of coffee culture, and its decay and neglect in the 1930s, the forest is regenerating naturally. There is a mosaic of secondary forests in JB - UFJF, populations of Euterpe edulis are more frequent in wet soils, this species being characteristic of more advanced areas in terms of succession. The objective was to diagnose the tree community of a stretch of secondary forest JB - UFJF dominated by E. edulis, to obtain detailed information on the structure and floristic diversity, and demonstrate the importance of the JB - UFJF in biodiversity conservation of the regional flora. A stretch of approximately 20 ha of regenerated forest was selected after discontinuation of caffeine (~ 70 in), with dominance of palm (E. edulis), where 25 plots of 20 x 20 m (total 1 ha) were allocated. All trees (dbh ≥ 5 cm) live and dead standing were sampled, identified and measured (DBH). We sampled 1926 individual, with 1837 living individuals belonging to 116 species. The most important species in the community were E. edulis (22.9 % VI), Piptadenia gonoacantha (16.5%), Xylopia sericea (5.7 %), Annona cacans (3.5 %) and Syagrus romanzoffiana (3.3 %), which together amounted to 51.9 % of VI. Highlight for E. edulis, with relative density of 41.2 % and a presence in all plots. The 89 dead trees represent 4.6% of all subjects, the lowest value when compared with other secondary forests in the region, which exceeded 15 %. The diameter distribution of the community was "reverse - J", with a large concentration of individuals in the first classes, showing good regenerative capacity. However, the population of P. gonoacantha, a pioneer of long life cycle, presented unbalanced distribution, with a decrease of individuals in the first classes, indicating a trend of progressive output community. Owing the dominance of E. edulis, the index value of species diversity (Shannon H '= 2.98 nats / ind) was close to that of secondary forests in the region. However, with the exclusion of species calculations, the index value has substantially increased (H '= 3.89 nats / ind) being the highest so far in the region's forests, showing that the fragment has high tree diversity. The results show a more mature tree community in relation to other studied secondary forests in the region with high species richness and species diversity, high density and low basal area of dead, indicating frank "construction phase". Additionally, the area has a high density of E. edulis and the presence of other endangered species, and species characteristics of families of mature forest (Lauraceae, Myrtaceae, Sapotaceae) with good representation, showing great importance to the preservation of regional floristic biodiversity.