Diversidade, estrutura genética e sistema reprodutivo em 'Centrolobium tomentosum' Guillem ex. Bentham (Fabaceae) visando subsidiar enriquecimento genético em áreas de restauração florestal

Author(s)

Patrícia Sanae Sujii

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Biologia
• Defense date: 2016-03-28

Examining board members

Maria Imaculada Zucchi; Samantha Koehler; Prianda Rios Laborda; Fábio Pinheiro; Karina Martins

• Advisor: Maria Imaculada Zucchi; Pedro Henrique Santin Brancalion

Abstract

Many local and global initiatives have been created to reduce human impacts on environment, reducing habitat loss with delimitation of protected areas, and increasing forest areas with forest restoration. International agreements as The New York Declaration on Forests that has a goal to restore 350 million hectares of forests by 2030, and local initiatives as The Atlantic Forest Restoration Pact that aims to restore 15 million hectares by 2050 are examples of these initiatives. Ecological restoration requires the recovery of both forest cover, which is reestablished in forest restoration, and a functional community, with populations able to survive and to adapt to environmental changes. These large investments in restoration highlights the importance of information about tanoxomy, ecology and genetics of native species. However, neither forest species composition nor ecological and genetics characteristics of native species are well known, especially in tropical forests. In addition, information about genetic diversity is underused in restoration projects planning. Thus, this study was developed to describe the mating system and genetic diversity of an Atlantic Forest tree species widely used for forest restoration, Centrolobium tomentosum, and to evaluate the success of ecological restoration to recover genetic diversity. We also developed a model to assess the impacts of different initial levels of genetic diversity on the viability of populations planted in restoration areas. Our results indicated that C. tomentosum is an allogamous species, with limited seed dispersal, and large capacity of pollen dispersal. This species has a small potential to colonize new areas, due to the low probability of long distance seed dispersal, but the high potential to long distance pollen dispersal enables functional connectivity of neighbour fragments. Comparing populations from natural remnants to populations from restoration areas, we observed that it is possible to recover genetic diversity with ecological restoration, especially if the seed pool used for the plantation were collected from a large number of seed-trees, reducing the founder effect. The model developed indicated that the initial genetic diversity has a significant effect on population viability, especially in small the restoration area and small initial population size. The simulations can be performed with different species and the results can be used to support planning of ecological restoration projects. Genetic studies presented here have been effective for a diagnosis of populations from areas restored without accounting for genetic diversity and can support planning of new projects for the reintroduction of populations in restoration areas (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 12/03246-8 - Genetic diversity and structure and reproductive system in Centrolobium tomentosum Guillem. Bentham (Fabaceae) aiming to support genetic enrichment in areas of forest restoration
• Grantee: Patricia Sanae Sujii
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate