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INFLUENCE OF SOILS AND TOPOGRAPHIC GRADIENTS ON TREE SPECIES DISTRIBUTION IN A BRAZILIAN ATLANTIC TROPICAL SEMIDECIDUOUS FOREST

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2007

W. G. Ferreira-Júnior ,
A. F. Silva ,
C. E. G. R. Schaefer ,
J. A. A. Meira Neto ,
A. S. Dias ,
M Ignácio  and
M. C. M. P. Medeiros
W. G. Ferreira-Júnior
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biologia Vegetal – Setor de Ecologia Vegetal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, s/n. Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil, CEP 36570-000. email: wjr@vicosa.ufv.br
C. E. G. R. Schaefer
Affiliation:
Departamento de Solos, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil
J. A. A. Meira Neto
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biologia Vegetal – Setor de Ecologia Vegetal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, s/n. Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil, CEP 36570-000. email: wjr@vicosa.ufv.br
A. S. Dias
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biologia Vegetal – Setor de Ecologia Vegetal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, s/n. Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil, CEP 36570-000. email: wjr@vicosa.ufv.br
M Ignácio
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biologia Vegetal – Setor de Ecologia Vegetal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, s/n. Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil, CEP 36570-000. email: wjr@vicosa.ufv.br
M. C. M. P. Medeiros
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biologia Vegetal – Setor de Ecologia Vegetal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, s/n. Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil, CEP 36570-000. email: wjr@vicosa.ufv.br
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Abstract

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 × 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.

Keywords

Conservation scienceenvironmental gradientsspatial distributiontropical soils
Type
Research Article
Information
Edinburgh Journal of Botany , Volume 64 , Issue 2 , July 2007 , pp. 137 - 157
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh 2007

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