Population structure and phenology of Miconia albicans (Sw.) Triana (Melastomataceae) in a Cerrado fragment subjected to fire in São Carlos, SP

• Grant number: 07/04933-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2007
• End date: October 31, 2008
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Dalva Maria da Silva Matos
• Grantee: Pavel Dodonov
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Plant populations are structured in time and space, and can by described by their structural, spatial or genetic structures. Spatial structure refers to the way individuals are organized in the environment. Different factors and processes act in determining spatial structure of a population; one that deserves mention is self thinning, a process that results in reduction of aggregation due to density dependent mortality. Plant population studies are rare in the Cerrado when compared to some others biomes. The present study is about the spatial structure, density effects and mortality of Miconia albicans (Melastomataceae), a shrub to tree species typical of the Cerrado; it is a fire sensitive species with a high re-sprouting capacity from the stem. The study area is the Cerrado area locate at the Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar), physognomy between cerrado sensu strictu and cerrado denso. In august 2006 this area suffered from a fire. Five transects, 100x5m each, were set up, each containing 20 5x5m plots. Within these plots all individuals were numbered with plastic labels and their diameter at soil level has been measured. The spatial structure of this species, both of adults and of re-sprouts, is being analyzed, as well as the relationship between distribution, distance from edge and impact in the fire in 2006; autocorrelation in spatial structure; and the relationship between number of sprouts in burned individuals and survival of these sprouts. Phenology of burned and not burned individuals will also be studied.

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)

DODONOV, P.; ZANELLI, C. B.; SILVA-MATOS, D. M.. Efeitos de um incêndio acidental de estação seca sobre a fenologia reprodutiva de dois arbustos savânicos neotropicais. Brazilian Journal of Biology, v. 78, n. 3, p. 564-573, AUG 2018. (07/04933-0)

XAVIER, RAFAEL DE OLIVEIRA; DODONOV, PAVEL; DA SILVA MATOS, DALVA MARIA. Growth and mortality patterns of the Neotropical bracken (Pteridium arachnoideum) and their response to shading in a savanna-riparian forest transition. FLORA, v. 252, p. 36-43, MAR 2019. (07/04933-0)