Forests of the Iguaçu National Park: Structure, Composition, and Richness

• Autor(a) principal: Souza,Ronan Felipe
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Machado,Sebastião do Amaral, Galvão,Franklin, Figueiredo Filho,Afonso, Picoli,Alex Costa
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Floresta e Ambiente
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2179-80872019000100114
• topic: successional stages; cotone; semi-deciduous forests

Abstract Considering the importance of the Iguaçu National Park for the conservation of the Atlantic Forest and the absence of scientific or technical studies characterizing the ecology of forest species after seven and a half decades of its existence, a phytosociological survey of the arboreal vegetation was conducted to identify the various existing species and their successional stages. A total of 54 families, 135 genera, and 218 species were found in this survey. Euterpe edulis Mart. was the most frequently occurring species, which together with Aspidosperma polyneuron Müll. Arg., characterize the seasonal forests in the central and south regions of the park. In the north region, located 700 m asl, Araucaria angustifolia (Bertol.) Kuntze and Ilex paraguariensis A. St.-Hil. were observed along with some seasonal species, characterizing a transitional environment between seasonal and ombrophillous forests. In general, forests in the park were classified in advanced stages of ecological succession.