Abstract
Palms, bromeliads and bamboos are key elements of tropical forests and understanding the effects of climate, anthropogenic pressure and forest structure on these groups is crucial to forecast structural changes in tropical forests. Therefore, we investigated the effects of these factors on the abundance of these groups in 22 Atlantic forest fragments of Northeastern Brazil. Abundance of bromeliads and bamboos were assessed through indexes. Palms were counted within a radius of 20 m. We also obtained measures of vegetation structure, fragment size, annual precipitation, precipitation seasonality and human population density. We tested the effects of these predictors on plant groups using path analysis. Palm abundance was higher in taller forests with larger trees, closed canopy and sparse understory, which may be a result of the presence of seed dispersers and specific attributes of local palm species. Bromeliads were negatively affected by both annual precipitation and precipitation seasonality, what may reflect adaptations of these plants to use water efficiently, but also the need to capture water in a regular basis. Bamboos were not related to any predictor variable. As climate and forest structure affected the abundance of bromeliads and palms, human-induced climatic changes and disturbances in forest structure may modify the abundance of these groups. In addition, soil properties and direct measurements of human disturbance should be used in future studies in order to improve the predictability of models about plant groups in Northeastern Atlantic Forest.
Highlights
Tropical forests are complex and heterogeneous environments that hold most of the World’s biodiversity (Köhler, 2000; Dirzo and Raven, 2003)
Many studies addressed how forest structure varies along successional gradients (Saldarriaga et al, 1988; Brown, 1991; Terborgh and Petren, 1991; Montgomery and Chazdon, 2001; Guariguata and Ostertag, 2001; DeWalt et al, 2003) and how structure is shaped by factors such as topography, soil, water availability, disturbances and previous land use (Grubb et al, 1963; Lieberman et al, 1996; Guariguata and Ostertag, 2001; Thompson et al, 2002; Hietz et al, 2006; Nepstad et al, 2007; Santos et al, 2008; Costa et al, 2010; Emilio et al, 2014; Rodrigues et al, 2014)
Bromeliads abundance was negatively affected by annual precipitation and precipitation seasonality, underlying habitat selection toward sites with increased light availability and well distributed rain along the year
Summary
Tropical forests are complex and heterogeneous environments that hold most of the World’s biodiversity (Köhler, 2000; Dirzo and Raven, 2003). These forests share higher resemblance in structure than in species composition (Grubb et al, 1963) and identifying structural patterns is a primary goal in plant ecology. Bamboos and bromeliads are commonly found in tropical forests, where they interplay with other vegetation components and with the fauna. These plants can influence animals either directly, providing resources, or indirectly by influencing other organisms. Some bamboo species follow a consolidator strategy, growing slowly after disturbances and being hampered by such events (Franklin et al, 2010)
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