The vegeation among bushes in a sandy coastal plain near an impacted area by sand mining in Espírito Santo State, Southeastern Brazil

Abstract

The sandbanks are ecosystems associated with the Atlantic Forest domain, which is among the five world hotspots of biodiversity. This species diversity is endangered since this ecosystem has been impacted by human exploration from the very begining of settling. The open shrublands in Brazilian sandbanks are generally of mosaic-like, due to the distribution of vegetation in clumps from the discontinuities in the landscape on the vegetaion cover, physiognomy and/or floristic composition. This paper aims to study the vegetation that is distributed in the spaces of wide exposure of the sandy substrate, called vegetation between bushes, beginig from an area that suffered sand mining impact, towards a 300 m line ino the sandy plain that is still preserved in the Environmental Protection Area of Setiba - EPA-Setiba, Guarapari, ES. The method of multiple squares was used to sample the predoinant herbaceus vegetation that occurs between the bushes, recording the height and diameter at ground level of each individual rooted in squares 1x1m, grouped into 16 m² plots, that were setted in blocks at each 50m far from the impact area. We determined the richness, diversity and evenness to the global plant species for the area and the phytosociological parameters for all species that ere identified. There were 34 families, 51 genera, and 60 species. The index of Species Richness of Whittaker was 7.198, the Diversity Index of Shannon-Wiener was 2.971 nat.ind-1, and the the Pielou’s Evenness Index was 0.726. We recorded 3632 individuals in 994 sampled squares. Among the botanical families, 20 were single-species, indicating high diversity, The richer plant families were Fabaceae, Malpighiaceae, and Convolvulaceae. The most dominant species were Chamaecrista ramosa, Stigmaphylon paralias, Evolvulus genistoides, Hyptis brevipes, and Schultesia crenuliflora.