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Abstract
Serpentine soils are those holding at least of 70% iron-magnesium compounds, which make life intolerable for many species. Although plant's adaptation to environmental toughness is widely studied in tropics, virtually nothing is known about Brazilian serpentine flora. Our aim was to bring up and characterize the serpentine flora in Bom Sucesso, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. We performed expeditions utilizing rapid survey sampling method to identify the arboreal compound in the area. Plants within circumference at breast high (CBH) up to 15,7 cm were included in our study. A specialist identified all the individuals to species level. We found 246 species located in 59 botanical families. Fabaceae, Myrtaceae and Melastomataceae were the most representative families in the area. Serpentine areas usually present a few species capable to survive to adverse conditions, contrasting the high number found in our study. To our knowledge, this is the first floristic survey in serpentine areas in the neotropics, reinforcing the need for more studies about plant diversity in those areas. It seems that serpentinites is not the key factor influencing plant diversity in the neotropics. The high diversity found in our study strengthens serpentine areas as a place for conservation concern.
Highlights
There some areas of serpentine soils in South America, they are scares around the globe, with the majority of them found in the Circum-pacific margin and Mediterranean Sea (Hseu, Zehetner, Fujii, Watanabe, & Nakao 2018), leading to a large gap of knowledge and only a few floristic surveys in Brazil and Central America (Almeda & Martins, 2015)
We conducted this study in Minas Gerais State, Bom Sucesso municipality in an area known as Morro das Almas, located between the coordinates 21o 01' 58" South and longitude 44o 45' 28" West, in an altitude of 952 m above the sea level
In some surveys regarding flora associated to serpentine soils in the tropics, it is usual to find a low number of species (Cano et al, 2014), counterpointing the high species number found in our survey
Summary
Heavy metals are known to interfere directly on the physiological processes of the plants, playing an important role in the redox reactions, being an integral part of enzymes, interfering in CO2 fixation, nutrient absorption, gaseous exchange and respiration (Nagajyoti et al, 2010). Those physical and chemical characteristics make serpentine soils a harsh environment for plants, hosting a reduced flora when compared to the neighboring areas (Brady, Kruckeberg, & Bradshaw Jr., 2005)
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