Species composition, community and population dynamics of two gallery forests from the Brazilian Cerrado domain.

Markus Gastauer,Écio Diniz,Roosevelt Almado,Luis Moreira,Angela Miazaki,João Meira-Neto

doi:10.3897/bdj.4.e8503

Abstract

BackgroundTo understand the impacts of global changes on future community compositions, knowledge of community dynamics is of crucial importance. To improve our knowledge of community composition, biomass stock and maintenance of gallery forests in the Brazilian Cerrado, we provide two datasets from the 0.5 ha Corrego Fazendinha Gallery Forest Dynamics Plot and the Corrego Fundo Gallery Forest Dynamics Plot situated in the Bom Despacho region, Minas Gerais, Southeastern Brazil.New informationWe report diameter at breast height, basal area and height measurements of 3417 trees and treelets identified during three censuses in both areas.

Highlights

We report diameter at breast height, basal area and height measurements of 3417 trees and treelets identified during three censuses in both areas
The Brazilian Cerrado is a hotspot of biodiversity (Mendonça et al 2008, Myers et al 2000) and holds carbon stocks of nearly 300 Mg per hectare (Batlle-Bayer et al 2010, Paiva et al 2011), its species richness, diversity and biomass are still threatened by habitat loss, fragmentation, biological invasion and climate change (e.g., Lapola et al 2013, Jantz et al 2015, Rossi et al 2014)
Within the Cerrado domain, gallery forests accompany the borders of rivers, creeks and streams, forming important corridors for wildlife among patches of remaining vegetation (Silveira et al 2014) that protect aquatic ecosystems from substrate input, reducing water temperatures and erosion of river banks (Monteiro et al 2016, Londe and Silva 2014)

Summary

Background

To understand the impacts of global changes on future community compositions, knowledge of community dynamics is of crucial importance. To improve our knowledge of community composition, biomass stock and maintenance of gallery forests in the Brazilian Cerrado, we provide two datasets from the 0.5 ha Corrego Fazendinha Gallery Forest Dynamics Plot and the Corrego Fundo Gallery Forest Dynamics Plot situated in the Bom Despacho region, Minas Gerais, Southeastern Brazil. We report diameter at breast height, basal area and height measurements of 3417 trees and treelets identified during three censuses in both areas.

Introduction

Sampling methods

35 Simaroubaceae

53 Erythroxylum

Findings

56 Duguetia