Anthropic disturbances as the main driver of a semideciduous seasonal forest fragment in Minas Gerais

Tainá Mamede Cirne Silva,Alisson Borges Miranda Santos,Cléber Rodrigo De Souza,Marcela De Castro Nunes Santos Terra,Rubens Manoel Dos Santos,Warley Augusto Caldas Carvalho

doi:10.1590/2175-7860201970065

Tainá Mamede Cirne Silva, Alisson Borges Miranda Santos + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/2175-7860201970065

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Journal: Rodriguésia	Publication Date: Jan 1, 2019
Citations: 5	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Universidade Federal de Lavras

Abstract

Abstract The new environmental conditions imposed by disturbance events often create a mosaic of spots in different successional stages. Our objective was to describe the temporal variation of a semideciduous seasonal forest based on its anthropic disturbance history, verifying possible changes in forest dynamics and structure. We sampled the arboreal vegetation with a diameter at breast height (1.3 m above the ground; DBH) ≥ 5 cm in 15 permanent plots of 20 × 20 m where we performed four inventories (2003, 2005, 2007 and 2015). We observed a density decrease and a basal area increase, which indicates the late successional stage of the analyzed tree community. The phytosociological structure, richness and species diversity of the tree community did not show changes throughout the monitoring. However, the Protium spruceanum predominance may be a response to the environmental changes caused by the mining occurred in the area 250 years ago. The anthropic disturbances enduring influences make this type of work indispensable because it allows the ecological processes understanding, allowing a factual management of the forests by the its effective management and conservation.

Highlights

The Human-biosphere interactions represent one of the current greatest threats to global biodiversity by changing the ecosystems dynamics around the world (Simberloff et al 2013; Lewis et al 2015)
The found tree community temporal pattern of decreasing density and increasing basal area is a worldwide trend of tropical forests (Lewis et al 2009)
In relation to phytosociological structure and floristic composition, Atlantic semideciduous seasonal forests commonly present 33% to 40% of species with abundance varying from one to two individuals (Paula et al 2004) and both dominance a b and density concentrated in a few populations (Fonseca et al 2013)

Summary

Introduction

The Human-biosphere interactions represent one of the current greatest threats to global biodiversity by changing the ecosystems dynamics around the world (Simberloff et al 2013; Lewis et al 2015). It is estimated that human activity had already changed 50% of terrestrial habitats in 1750 and reached values of 75% in 2000 (Ellis 2011). This global reality can be extended to the Brazilian Atlantic Domain through its deforestation. Some disturbances are common events in nature and the ecosystems may present considerable resilience (Holling 1973), some of them can lead to durable changes in ecosystem status (Scheffer et al 2001; Haddad et al 2015) and increased vulnerability to degradation (Ghazoul et al 2015; Seidl et al 2016). The canopy gap disturbance is pointed out as decisive in species diversity maintenance by the modification in resources availability that drives ecological succession and dynamic cycles that favor biological heterogeneity (Bell et al 2006; Machado & Oliveira-Filho 2010; Reyes et al 2010)

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