Publicações
INFLUENCE OF SOILS AND TOPOGRAPHIC GRADIENTS ON TREE SPECIES DISTRIBUTION IN A BRAZILIAN ATLANTIC TROPICAL SEMIDECIDUOUS FOREST
Ferreira-Júnior, W. G., A. F. Silva, C. E. G. R. Schaefer, J. A. A. Meira Neto, A. S. Dias, M Ignácio and M. C. M. P. Medeiros, 2007. INFLUENCE OF SOILS AND TOPOGRAPHIC GRADIENTS ON TREE SPECIES DISTRIBUTION IN A BRAZILIAN ATLANTIC TROPICAL SEMIDECIDUOUS FOREST. Edinburgh Journal of Botany, Volume 64, issue 02, pp 137-157
Autores
Joao Augusto Alves Meira Neto
This study investigated the effect of environmental variables such as soil class, soil water
availability, topography and slope on spatial distribution patterns of tree species in a
Brazilian Seasonal Semideciduous Forest area. Floristic and structural data for a tree
community were obtained by sampling 100 plots 10 6 10 m in which every tree with
trunk diameter (dbh) > 4.77 cm at 130 cm above ground level was sampled. The area
under study showed a marked soil gradient, directly associated with the topography: flat
hilltops with Al3+-rich Dystric Latosols give way to steep colluvial slopes with shallower
and more Dystric Cambic Latosols without Al3+, changing over, at the bottom of the
hollows, to Epieutrophic Cambisols richer in nutrients. The floristic-sociological
parameters analysed for the soil habitats did not differ statistically from each other. The
diversity and equability indices were 3.6 and 0.84, 3.48 and 0.85, 3.49 and 0.84 for the
Dystric Latosol, Dystric Cambic Latosol and Epieutrophic Cambisol, respectively. The
soil variables (related to the fertility and texture) and the soil water regime (drainage)
were probably the principal factors determining the spatial distribution patterns of tree
species in the forest.