Herb layer community structure of a seasonal semideciduous forest fragment in Campinas municipality, São Paulo State, Brazil

• Grant number: 06/00088-1
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: May 01, 2006
• End date: April 30, 2008
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Fernando Roberto Martini
• Grantee: Fernando Roberto Martini
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Ribeirão Cachoeira forest reserve is a 233.7 ha seasonal semideciduous forest fragment in good conservation state located at the northeastern region of Campinas municipality, São Paulo state, SE Brazil. This study aims at describing the herbaceous community structure and, if possible, to choose environmental quality indicator species by comparison with a disturbed fragment (Santa Genebra Municipal Reserve, in the same municipality). The survey of the herbaceous stratum of Ribeirão Cachoeira forest reserve will be done by means of 50 randomly distributed 10 x 10 m permanent plots. All the vascular plants up to 1 m high will be collected, and their height and diameter at soil level will be recorded. The plant collection will be done during at least a year in order to sample seasonal species and collect fertile material to facilitate taxonomic identification. The collected material will be identified and lodged into the Herbarium UEC of the Department of Botany, Institute of Biology, UNICAMP. Usual descriptors, such as density, frequency, and dominance, as well as alpha-diversity indices and abundance-distribution models, will provide a quantitative description of the community structure. The calculations will be performed mainly in the FITOPAC software package. (AU)