Abstract
Mimosa tenuiflora is a native pioneer tree from the Caatinga used commercially as firewood due to its high calorific value. It is deciduous, its trunk does not reach large diameters and it has good regrowth capacity. This study intended to determine the annual increment in diameter of M. tenuiflora and its correlation with rainfall, as basis for fuel wood management. Disks from the stem base of M. tenuiflora trees were collected in 2008 in Sertânia and Serra Talhada, Pernambuco State, from regrowth of trees coppiced in 2003 and in Limoeiro do Norte, Ceará State, from a plantation established in 2002. The trees have well-defined annual growth rings, highly correlated with annual precipitation and are well-suited for dendrochronological investigations. Forest managers must consider the influence of previous drier years in the wood production when predicting fuel wood harvesting. The high growth correlation with the previous year's rainfall in regions where the rains start after photoperiodic stimulation indicate the necessity of understanding the growth dynamics of the species under dry forest conditions through additional ecophysiology studies.
Highlights
Many areas of degraded tropical forests are inhabited by poor communities, strongly dependent on forest resources for their livelihood (ALVAREZ et al, 2011; CUVILAS et al, 2010; MIAH et al, 2009)
The geoecology domain of caatinga extends for about 900.000 km2, in the semi-arid region of Northeast Brazil, from 2o45’S to 17o21’S (ALVES, 2007)
The trees grew over years with variable climatic data, some with much lower annual rainfall than the historic means of the areas, as frequently occurs in the caatinga (VELLOSO et al, 2002). This frequently results in absence of a growth ring in the year, as described for seasonally dry forests in Ethiopia, but this this was not observed in the samples of this study
Summary
Many areas of degraded tropical forests are inhabited by poor communities, strongly dependent on forest resources for their livelihood (ALVAREZ et al, 2011; CUVILAS et al, 2010; MIAH et al, 2009). Most of these communities have no access to protocols to use forest resources without degrading the forest, and that is even more drastic when considering site-specific characteristics This is the reality in the semi-arid caatinga of northeast Brazil. Despite the caatinga’s botanical richness, the high demand for fuel wood or charcoal by local industry and for domestic use means that there is unsustainable legal and illegal overexploitation of the vegetation (RIEGELHAUPT; PAREYN, 2010). This is amplified by agricultural pressure and has resulted in the vegetation modification of 70% of the original forest cover (ALVES et al, 2009). The devastation that is occurring to fulfill economic activities, associated with the fragility of the ecosystem, causes a reduction in biological diversity, compromising water resources, increasing soil erosion, soil compaction and salinization, and reducing primary production (ALVES, 2007)
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