Ecological factors that influence forest regeneration

• Grant number: 23/01708-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: May 01, 2023
• End date: October 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Agreement: NSF - Dimensions of Biodiversity and BIOTA
• Principal Investigator: Marco Aurelio Pizo Ferreira
• Grantee: Mariane de Mello Girotti
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/02943-6 - Dimensions US-São Paulo: animal biases in fruit selection and seed dispersal as drivers of biotic filters in the assembly of successional forests and their carbon capture potential, AP.BTA.TEM

Abstract

Secondary forests are increasingly common in tropical regions and form an important repository for current and future biodiversity. Understanding the factors that determine the regeneration of secondary forests is an important goal for diversity conservation. This project intends to investigate the functional relationship between the interactions involving plants and seed-dispersing birds and the structure of plant communities that form in forest regeneration nuclei in deforested areas. For this, experimental plots will be established in twelve replicated landscapes in an area of previously deforested Atlantic Forest. In these landscapes, a full factorial experiment will be performed using functional traits (e.g. nutritional composition of fruits) of ornithochoric plants (i.e., dispersed by birds) planted in plots in pasture areas adjacent to natural forest patches. The arrival of seeds in seed traps and the regeneration of vegetation in the plots will be quantified. The visitation of birds in the plots will also be considered. The project will then make it possible to understand which characteristics of plants, frugivorous birds and the environment influence the regeneration of forests in deforested areas. (AU)