Natural forest regeneration in abandoned sugarcane fields in northeastern Brazil: floristic changes

Authors

  • Ladivania Medeiros do Nascimento Prefeitura Municipal do Recife, Secretaria de Meio Ambiente, Jardim Botânico do Recife
  • Everardo Valadares de Sá Barretto Sampaio Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Departamento de Energia Nuclear
  • Maria Jesus Nogueira Rodal Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Área de Botânica, Departamento de Biologia
  • Suzene Izídio da Silva Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Área de Botânica, Departamento de Biologia
  • Ana Carolina Borges Lins e Silva Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Área de Ecologia, Departamento de Biologia

Keywords:

secondary forests, floristic, secondary succession

Abstract

Surveys were undertaken to examine the floristic changes during secondary succession in three areas of 12 and three of 20-year-old secondary forests in Pernambuco State, Brazil. Two hundred and six species were identified, with 136 being found in the 12-year-old secondary forest and 161 species in the 20-year-old forest. Fabaceae and Myrtaceae were the most important families, increasing in species numbers with regeneration age. Of the 216 species, 115 were trees, 48 shrubs, 16 herbaceous plants, and 24 woody lianas, without significant differences between the two regeneration site ages. NMDS analysis revealed a formation of two floristic groups, distinguishing secondary and mature forests, with a further division within secondary forests in accordance with the time since abandonment. Similarity analysis ANOSIM confirmed the significance of the groups, which had floristic composition significant distinct (R=0.96) and 63% of dissimilarity (SIMPER). However, the sharing of 68 arboreal species between the secondary and mature forests suggests a floristic convergence. DCA analysis of the arboreal component as well as the other plant habits suggested that the separation of the subgroups is correlated with physical and chemical variables of the soils. All of these results indicate that, within the chronosequence analyzed, the velocity and direction of the floristic composition during secondary succession was influenced not only by the time of their abandonment, but also by a wide range of environmental variables.

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Published

2012-12-01

How to Cite

Nascimento, L. M. do, Sampaio, E. V. de S. B., Rodal, M. J. N., Silva, S. I. da, & Lins e Silva, A. C. B. (2012). Natural forest regeneration in abandoned sugarcane fields in northeastern Brazil: floristic changes. Biota Neotropica, 12(4). Retrieved from //www.biotaneotropica.org.br/BN/article/view/1028

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