Community-Wide Spatial and Temporal Discordances of Seed-Seedling Shadows in a Tropical Rainforest

Autor(es)

Rother, Debora Cristina ^{[1, 2]} ; Pizo, Marco Aurelio ^[3] ; Siqueira, Tadeu ^[4] ; Rodrigues, Ricardo Ribeiro ^[1] ; Jordano, Pedro ^[5]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Escola Super Agr Luiz Queiroz, Dept Ciencias Biol, Lab Ecol & Restauracao Florestal, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[2] Univ Estadual Paulista, Dept Bot, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[3] Univ Estadual Paulista, Dept Zool, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[4] Univ Estadual Paulista, Dept Ecol, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[5] CSIC, Estn Biol Donana, Integrat Ecol Grp, E-41080 Seville - Spain

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: PLoS One; v. 10, n. 4 APR 9 2015.
• Citações Web of Science: 4

Resumo

Several factors decrease plant survival throughout their lifecycles. Among them, seed dispersal limitation may play a major role by resulting in highly aggregated (contagious) seed and seedling distributions entailing increased mortality. The arrival of seeds, furthermore, may not match suitable environments for seed survival and, consequently, for seedling establishment. In this study, we investigated spatio-temporal patterns of seed and seedling distribution in contrasting microhabitats (bamboo and non-bamboo stands) from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Spatial distribution patterns, spatial concordance between seed rain and seedling recruitment between subsequent years in two fruiting seasons (2004-2005 and 2007-2009), and the relation between seeds and seedlings with environmental factors were examined within a spatially-explicit framework. Density and species richness of both seeds and seedlings were randomly distributed in non-bamboo stands, but showed significant clustering in bamboo stands. Seed and seedling distributions showed across-year inconsistency, suggesting a marked spatial decoupling of the seed and seedling stages. Generalized linear mixed effects models indicated that only seed density and seed species richness differed between stand types while accounting for variation in soil characteristics. Our analyses provide evidence of marked recruitment limitation as a result of the interplay between biotic and abiotic factors. Because bamboo stands promote heterogeneity in the forest, they are important components of the landscape. However, at high densities, bamboos may limit recruitment for the plant community by imposing marked discordances of seed arrival and early seedling recruitment. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 03/11073-7 - Influência dos bambus na chuva de sementes e estabelecimento de plan tulas na Mata Atlântica
• Beneficiário: Debora Cristina Rother
• Linha de fomento: Bolsas no Brasil - Mestrado
• Processo FAPESP: 99/09635-0 - Diversidade, dinâmica e conservação de árvores em florestas do estado de São Paulo: estudos em parcelas permanentes
• Beneficiário: Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues
• Linha de fomento: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Programa BIOTA - Temático