Diversity of understory vegetation and litter cover in mosaics of Mata de Tabuleiro and Mussununga on Vale Nature Reserve, Linhares, Espírito Santo, Brazil
Abstract
The understory is the vegetation found in forests interiors, below canopy level, that form an important niche for local vegetation, especially in Atlantic Forest regions. This vegetation influents the contribution and degradation of litter, that determines the availability of resources and production of biomass. This works objective was to evaluate if litter coverage affects understory diversity between Mussununga and Tabuleiro Forest. Our hypothesis is that litter coverage interferes with understory diversity between Mussununga and Tabuleiro Forest. The study was developed in one area of Tabuleiro Forest (19°08’28.9”S 40°04’00.8”W) and two areas of Mussununga (19°08’28.9”S 40°04’00.8”W and 19°09’07.7”S 40°03’39.8”W ), all situated inside Vale Natural Reserve, Linhares, Espírito Santo state. All understory plants were collected, with a height between 0.5 and 2 meters, that came into contact with the collector and collecting only one sample per plant. 20 paths were traced inside one Tabuleiro Forest area and 10 paths in each Mussununga areas, and each path was10 meters long with 20 meters of space between each other. This way morphospecies (ME) richness and abundance were found and indexes of Shannon diversity, Jaccard and equability were calculated. A grid, measuring 50x50cm and containing 25 compartments with 10x10cm each, was made to measure the litter coverage percentage at the start and end of each path. The average coverage values of the two areas were then compared by t test (R v3.1.1 software). The results were 93% coverage with 44 ME for Mussununga and 60% coverage with 64 ME for Tabuleiro Forest. These results could be due to, not quantitative properties, but qualitative properties of litter, like lignin amount in leaves, Carbon/Nitrogen ratio and specific tannins. In addition to physical characteristics of the environment, such as soil porosity and temperature. All these factors hinder the degradation of organic matter and favor the accumulation of litter for prolonged periods, even in regions with less diverse vegetation.
Keywords:
Downloads
References
Begon M, Colin RT, John LH (2007) Ecologia: de indivíduos a ecossistemas 4 ed. Porto Alegre, Artmed.
Berg B (2014) Decomposition patterns for foliar litter – A theory for influencing factors. Soil Biolog y and Biochemistry 78: 222–232.
Chapin FS III (1980) The mineral nutrition of wild plants. Annual Review of Ecolog y and Systematics 11: 233-260.
Colwell RK, Anne C, Nicholas J G, Shang-Yi L, Chang XM, Robin LC, John TL (2012) Models and estimators linking individual-based and sample-based rarefaction, extrapolation and comparison of assemblages. Journal of Plant Ecolog y 1: 3-21.
Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (1987) Reserva Florestal da CVRD em Linhares. CVRD-Revista 27: 1-18.
Davin LB, Lewis NG (2000) Dirigent proteins and dirigent sites explain the mystery of specificity of radical precursor coupling in lignan and lignin biosynthesis. Plant Physiolog y 123: 453–461.
Gonzalez G, Seastedt TR (2000) Comparison of the abundance and composition of soil fauna litter in tropical and subalpine forests. Pedobiologia 44: 545-555.
Handa T, Rien A, Frank B, Matty PB, Andreas B, Olaf B, Eric C,Mark O, Marika M, Brendan GM, Björn M, Edwin THMP, Stefan S, Bernhard S, Jasper van R, Veronique CAV, Stephan H (2014) Consequences of biodiversity loss for litter decomposition across biomes. Nature 509: 218-231.
Hatfield R, Vermerris W (2001) Lignin Formation in Plants. The Dilemma of Linkage Specificity. Plant Physiolog y 126: 1351–1357.
Hattenschwiler S, Tiunov AV, Scheu S (2005) Biodiversity and litter decomposition in terrestrial ecosystems. Annual Review of Ecolog y, Evolution, and Systematics 36: 191–218.
IBGE (2012) Manual Técnico da Vegetação Brasileira. 2 ed. Rio de Janeiro, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística - IBGE.
Ivanauskas NM, Monteiro R, Rodrigues RR (2008) Classificação fitogeográfica das florestas do Alto Rio Xingu. Acta Amazonica 38: 387-402.
Leite RD (2007) Resampling technique was used in the understory vegetation of Mata Atlâtica. Acta Amazonica 387: 23:33.
Lindh B, Muir P (2004) Understory vegetation in young Douglas-fir forests: does thinning help restore old-growth composition? Forest Ecolog y and Management 192: 285-296.
Mantovani BR, Robinson-Whelen S, Oschwald M, Hughes RBS (2010) The perspective of plant wealth is directly correlated with greater water availability and organic matter and lower lignin. Plant Physiolog y 345: 33-45.
Odion DC, Sarr DA (2007) Managing disturbance regimes to maintain biological diversity in forested ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest. Forest Ecolog y and Management 246: 57-65.
Powers LE, Renker P, Robinson-Whelen S, Oschwald M, Hughes RB, Swank P, Curry MA (2009) Loss of leaves Seasonal Forests is adapted to reduce water loss by transpiration. Nature 9: 1040-1069.
Santos AS (2007) Sub-bosque: Importância e proteção jurídica. Programa Ambiental: “A última arca de Noé”. Disponível em: .
Vieira LM, Mendel SM (2002) Riqueza de artrópodes relacionada à complexidade estrutural da vegetação: uma comparação entre métodos. Ecologia de Campo-Curso de Campo 23-34.
Wahyudiono MS, Motonobu G (2008) Recovery of phenolic compounds through the decomposition of lignin in near and supercritical water. Chemical Engineering and Processing 47: 1609-1619.
Wieder RK, Scott KD, Kamminga K, Vile MA, Vitt DH, Bone T, Xu B, Benscoter BW, Bhatti JS (2009) Postfire carbon balance in boreal bogs of Alberta, Canada. Global Change Biolog y 15: 63-81.
How to Cite
License
Esta licença permite que outros distribuam, remixem, adaptem e criem a partir do seu trabalho, mesmo para fins comerciais, desde que lhe atribuam o devido crédito pela criação original.
