THE INFLUENCE OF FIRE ON THE SOIL SEED BANK IN SEMIDECIDUOUS FOREST

• Autor(a) principal: Camargos, Virgínia Londe de
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Martins, Sebastião Venâncio, Ribeiro, Guido Assunção, Carmo, Flávia Maria da Silva, Silva, Alexandre Francisco da
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Ciência Florestal (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufsm.br/cienciaflorestal/article/view/8436
• topic: fire ecology; forest restoration; forest disturbance; ecologia do fogo; restauração florestal; distúrbio florestal

http://dx.doi.org/10.5902/198050988436This study was carried out in a fragment called “Reserva da Biologia”, which belongs to the Universidade Federal de Viçosa, in Minas Gerais state, Brazil (20º35’-28º50’S e 42º45’-43º00’W), where ten 5 x 5m plots, 1m away from each other, were set up. A controlled burning was performed on the plots, following the wind-driven fire technique, according to the slope orientation. The objective was to characterize the soil seed bank before and after fire, in order to verify the effects of such discontinuance on both population density and floristic composition of the tree community. In the middle of each plot a 40x 25cm soil sampling was collected, from the leaf litter downward 5cm deep. A day after the sample collections the plots underwent controlled burning. New soil collections were done immediately after burning, following the previous methodology. Five hundred and twenty-eight (528) and 429 seeds germinated from the soil seed bank before and after the fire, respectively. Such plants belonged to 23 species and 14 botanical families, from which Melastomataceae, Asteraceae and Urticaceae stood out. There was no meaningful reduction in the species richness or in the density of individuals of the populations between both samplings. The floristic similarity was 34%. Miconia cinnamomifolia and Leandra purpurascens were the most frequent/abundant species. Pioneer species stood out making up 44 and 40% of the species found in the area before and after fire, respectively.