Abstract
Several studies suggest that, on a large scale, relief conditions influence the Atlantic Forest cover. The aim of this work was to explore these relationships on a local scale, in Caucaia do Alto, on the Ibiúna Plateau. Within an area of about 78 km(2), the distribution of forest cover, divided into two successional stages, was associated with relief attribute data (slope, slope orientation and altitude). The mapping of the vegetation was based on the interpretation of stereoscopic pairs of aerial photographs, from April 2000, on a scale of 1:10,000, while the relief attributes were obtained by geoprocessing from digitalized topographic maps on a scale of 1:10,000. Statistical analyses, based on qui-square tests, revealed that there was a more extensive forest cover, irrespective of the successional stage, in steeper areas (>10 degrees) located at higher altitudes (>923 m), but no influence of the slope orientation. There was no sign of direct influence of relief on the forest cover through environmental gradients that might have contributed to the forest regeneration. Likewise, there was no evidence that these results could have been influenced by the distance from roads or urban areas or with respect to permanent preservation areas. Relief seems to influence the forest cover indirectly, since agricultural land use is preferably made in flatter and lower areas. These results suggest a general distribution pattern of the forest remnants, independent of the scale of study, on which relief indirectly has a strong influence, since it determines human occupation.
Highlights
In spite of the great diversity of approaches and analysis scales, several studies have shown that the richness and the composition of plant communities are influenced by relief characteristics such as slope orientation (Killingbeck and Wali, 1978), slope position (Oliveira Filho et al, 1994), altitude (Kappelle et al, 1995; Pendry and Proctor, 1996), and slope (Volpato, 1994)
The results showed that, independently of the successional stage, forest cover was especially high in steeper areas (>10°) and/or at higher altitudes (>923 m), but there was no influence of the slope orientation
This spatial pattern may have been determined by two processes: i) forest regeneration, quite intense in the Caucaia region after the Second World War, could have been more rapid in higher terrain with steeper slope; and ii) the use of land for economic purposes is preferentially done in less declivous areas and at a lower altitude, leading to a more drastic reduction in forest cover in these situations
Summary
In spite of the great diversity of approaches and analysis scales, several studies have shown that the richness and the composition of plant communities are influenced by relief characteristics such as slope orientation (Killingbeck and Wali, 1978), slope position (Oliveira Filho et al, 1994), altitude (Kappelle et al, 1995; Pendry and Proctor, 1996), and slope (Volpato, 1994). Relief has a close relationship with pedologic cover, since it determines the hydric dynamics and controls the incidence of solar radiation (Roy and Singh, 1994; Chen et al, 1997; Clark et al, 1998). Despite this interdependence, relief influence on the composition and structure of the vegetation is almost always clearer than that of soil attributes (Simonetti, 2001). Edaphic and topographic factors can influence more advanced successional stages, whose dominance of species can be related with specific soil characteristics such as water availability, and early stages, because species at these stages are highly capable of occupying the most diverse types of terrains, such as areas of poor or shallow soil (Budowski, 1965)
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