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| Author(s): |
Sílvia Rafaela Machado Lins
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Doctoral Thesis |
| Press: | Piracicaba. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC) |
| Defense date: | 2017-07-14 |
| Examining board members: |
Luiz Antonio Martinelli;
Sílvio Frosini de Barros Ferraz;
Ricardo Augusto Gorne Viani;
Simone Aparecida Vieira
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| Advisor: | Luiz Antonio Martinelli |
| Abstract | |
The Northeastern Atlantic Forest of Brazil contains thousands of forest fragments at different stages of regeneration, some recovering from abandoned agricultural fields, while others recovering from chronic disturbances such as fire, logging, and poaching. Some of these fragments kept protected for several reasons: corporate responsibility, compliance with the forest code, preservation of biodiversity, among others. Although these fragments are far from having the same species richness of plant and animal, they can perform important ecosystem services, such as protection of water bodies, reservoir of important nutrients and carbon (C). This is especially important if we consider that there are global initiatives such as REDD + with the objective of assessing secondary forests and forests in recovery process as important C pools. On the other hand, the management and preservation of these fragments depends on a solid knowledge about their structure and nutrient cycle. There is a relatively rich literature on the loss of biodiversity in these Northeastern forest fragments. Much less is available, however, about the structure and function of these fragments. This work intends to contribute to fill this gap, providing solid scientific information on four forest areas and a secondary forest, where a restoration program was implemented in the State of Alagoas, Northeast of Brazil. After a brief introduction, chapter one discusses the structure of these fragments through a complete forest inventory, where individuals density, height and diameter at breast height (DBH) were measured for each tree with DBH >= 10 cm. With these allometric data, we estimated the basal area and aboveground live biomass (AGLB), comparing these attributes with other estimates available in the literature. In chapter two, we investigated the distribution of nutrients in the forest fragments, where we measured the foliar concentration of C, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). At the same time, we measured the litterfall mass in each fragment and its nutrient content for a one year period of sampling. With this information we were able to establish how these areas cycled their main limiting nutrients and C. Finally, in the last chapter we approached the partition of C and nutrient stocks, above and belowground, in order to evaluate the importance of C pools and nutrients in the forest fragments and understand the role of these fragments in a world that urgently needs to store C in a sustainable reservoir. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 12/20377-9 - Nutrient dynamics in Atlantic forest fragments located in the state of Alagoas, Brazil. |
| Grantee: | Sílvia Rafaela Machado Lins |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate |