Composição florística, características reprodutivas e diversidade funcional ao longo de uma cronossequência em floresta atlântica

Abstract

Currently, tropical forests are the legacy of successive periods of colonization, farming, abandonment and regrowth, shaped by human occupations, natural disasters and climate change. Forest clearance for cultivation, the opening of pastures or logging cause intensively and extensively disorders. Then the disturbances occurs forest regeneration which is a process of secondary succession at the community level and ecosystem. This work seeks answer the following questions: At what age young forests present rate of growth closer forms of mature forest? Young forests tend to diverge or converge with the flora of the mature forest? The functional diversity of pollination syndromes is influenced by the age of regeneration of forests ?. 198 species and morphospecies, 131 genera and 59 families were sampled. The most representative families were Myrtaceae, Rubiaceae and Sapindaceae. Significant differences were observed in terms of habits of plants among the different age groups. The results suggest that 16 years from young forests tended to converge with the mature forest in terms of the proportion of growing forms of species, with a decline of herbaceous and woody species enrichment over time. About 35% of tree species were present in young forests suggesting that the floristic composition of young forests tends to resemble the mature forest. Our results show that the functional diversity of pollination syndromes is not influenced by the leaving time of forests.