Observations on the vegetation of eastern Mato Grosso, Brazil. III. The woody vegetation and soils of the Morro de Fumaça, Torixoreu

Abstract

The Morro de Fumaça, Município de Torixoreu, Mato Grosso, Brazil, is a low hill characteristic of a range of similar topographic features in the region. It shows a suite of representative and rapidly disappearing vegetation types together with their associated soils. The upper slopes are clothed in deciduous forest, which is followed downslope by a band of mesotrophic facies cerradão and then on the lower ground by more open cerrado. The parallel changes in soil pass from the shallow and frequently plinthitic lithosols over the summits and upper slopes to progressively deeper and more acidic soils over the footslope. The increasing impoverishment from upslope sites downwards is especially marked by the changes in the exchangeable calcium content. The vegetation survey was done by means of point-centred quarter transects and by quadrats. The tree species of the deciduous forest are listed. Both the forest and mesotrophic facies cerradão closely resemble in floristics, structure and soil characteristics those studied in the limited investigations available from other areas of Mato Grosso and elsewhere in Central Brazil. The soil data are derived from an initial reconnaissance survey, with soil profiles selected to represent the major changes in vegetation. Extremely little information exists on the deciduous forests of Brazil and the present communication provides information on this important and increasingly endangered type of vegetation.