Seed rain and limitation to plant recruitment in fragments of northeastern Atlantic Forest

• Grant number: 22/01560-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Effective date (Start): March 01, 2022
• Effective date (End): May 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Luís Fábio Silveira
• Grantee: Luís Felipe Daibes de Andrade
• Host Institution: Museu de Zoologia (MZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 17/23548-2 - Evaluation, recovering and conservation of endangered animal species from the Pernambuco Centre of Endemism, AP.BTA.TEM
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/02916-4 - A functional view of seed limitations across a fragmented tropical forest, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

An ecological process drawing attention from plant ecologists in the last years is the "recruitment limitation", this is, the incapacity of plants to occupy all available sites in the environment to recruitment of new individuals. Such limitation has profound implications to the structure and dynamics of plant populations and communities. Among the mechanisms involved in recruitment limitation are the "dispersal limitation", that occurs when seeds do not arrive in the open sites available for recruitment, and the "establishment limitation", that occurs when seeds - although arriving the available sites - fail to establish as seedlings due to inappropriate biotic/abiotic conditions. These mechanisms, still poorly studied in tropical forests in a general sense, can be affected by environmental perturbations. The project here proposed aims to investigate the patterns of plant recruitment limitation in fragments of the Atlantic Forest in the state of Alagoas (Northeastern Brazil). To do so, seed rain and seedling establishment will be studied. Within this project, we intend to identify the factors influencing recruitment in plant populations from disturbed forest environments. Such information will be useful to delineate management practices to promote the maintenance of plant populations in the studied forest fragments. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

VANESSA COUTO SOARES; LUÍS FELIPE DAIBES; GERALDO ALVES DAMASCENO-JUNIOR; LIANA BAPTISTA DE LIMA. A imersão em água e o armazenamento de um ano influenciam a germinação dos pirênios de Copernicia alba Morong, uma palmeira de um bioma alagado neotropical. Hoehnea, v. 49, 2022-11-28. (22/01560-9)