Efeito de borda em um contexto de Florestas Urbanas: resultantes estruturais de usos pretéritos do solo

Abstract

The Atlantic Rain Forest is one of the world’s most endangered biomes. Long before its discovery by western civilization, the forest had already been occupied and used by native populations. The increasing occupation of this biome has generated landscapes composed of a mosaic of forests of different ages that resulted from its usage and that overlap in space and time. Remaining fragments are still subject to manmade impacts including edge effects. Based on these concepts, a study was conducted aiming at understanding the edge effects, on structure and composition, of two areas of Atlantic Rain Forest in the Pedra Branca State Park in Rio de Janeiro, RJ; one located in the valley basins (Caçambe river basin), and the other at the limit of the drainage (Grande river basin). At each area, were choosed two sites; one near to the edge and other over 100m from the edge (forest interior). The sites were: valley basin’s edge (Bfv), valley basin’s interior (Ifv), limit of the drainage’s edge (Bdd) and limit of the drainage’s interior (Idd). Changes caused by the existence of a edge, included the assess of a biotic edge effects, using for it changes in the species richness, individuals density, diameter and height. Individual trees and shrubs with diameter at breast height (dbh) > 5 cm were sampled within 32 plots of 10 x 10 m for a total sample size of 0.32 ha. The samples yielded 309 individuals of 77 species, 70 genera and 32 families. The total basal area was 28,89 m2/ha and density was 966 ind./ha. Leguminosae, Meliaceae e Sapotaceae were found to be the richest families. The number of total species is comparable to the referenced values for preserved forests, inventoried in the southeast. The edges species richness (Bfv and Ifv) similar to the interiors species richness (Ifv and Idd). Mean diameter varied form 32, 9 cm and 36,2 cm in the edges and 42,2 cm and 53,1 cm in the forests interiors. Probably, the sampled edges finds itself in a state of natural regeneration and represents an inicial successional state, different to the intermediary sucessional state in the interiors. The index of Sørensen between the four sites may occurs due to the different slope orientation, geomorphologic situation and land use history.