Viability of Native Cerrado plants propagules in silviculture matrix soil

• Grant number: 24/16023-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: February 10, 2025
• End date: June 09, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Forestry Resources and Forestry Engineering - Nature Conservation
• Principal Investigator: Elisa Hardt Alves Vieira
• Grantee: Cinthia Sayuri Yoshizawa Takeda
• Supervisor: Carlos Tomas Lopez de Pablo
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Ambientais, Químicas e Farmacêuticas (ICAQF). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Diadema. Diadema , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), Spain
• Associated to the scholarship: 24/00797-0 - Influence of silviculture matrix on the dispersion of Cerrado tree species, BP.MS

Abstract

The Cerrado biome, a biodiversity hotspot, has historically undergone conversion for uses such as eucalyptus silviculture, common in some regions of São Paulo. The silviculture matrix can differ from other activities due to the mobility of dispersing agents and the ability to establish plant propagules within it. To understand the effects of this matrix on the germination and regrowth of propagules of Cerrado tree species, a controlled three-month experiment will be carried out in a greenhouse, focused on the viability of propagules present in 72 soil samples, from 3 Cerradão fragments and gradients of habitat-matrix distance delimited from them. The internship abroad at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), with a technical visit to the University of Barcelona (UB), has a main focus on the analysis of experiment data, contributing to expand current knowledge about variations in the Cerrado regeneration process depending on the matrix type, a central subject of the linked Fapesp Project. Univariate and multivariate statistical analyzes will be carried out, aiming to identify functional connectivity distance thresholds of the landscape. Samples from the source fragment and from the strips of different distance range through the matrix, will be compared regarding germination, regrowth and mortality rates, height and circumference of the seedlings, and species diversity and variance indices. From practical and training activities abroad, are expected new perspectives, methods and approaches to data analysis and interpretation, and the production of a scientific publication strengthening the project of formal international partnership between the institutions.