Variação da estrutura da vegetação de restinga no gradiente edáfico-topográfico litorâneo

Abstract

Despite its implications for carbon storage, animal conservation, and plant regeneration, the variation in the structure of heath vegetation in South America is still poorly studied. Here I analyzed the soil and topographic determinants of this variation in restinga heath vegetation that occur in fields of coastal dunes of northeastern Brazil. Despite its implications for carbon storage, animal conservation, and plant regeneration, the variation in the structure of heath vegetation in South America is still poorly studied. Soils were acidic and had low fertility; while vegetation structure showed reduced basal area and height, as well as a remarkably open canopy. A Principal Components Analysis revealed three major structural gradientes related to biomass, herbaeous cover, and leaning plants, respectively. These gradients were significantly related to soil nutrientes, mainly calcium and nitrogen in multiple regression analyses. Our results suggest that different groups of plants have different response to abiotic gradients that are exposed. The effect of the set of topographic factors and soil nutrients does not appear to present an immediate strong influence on vegetation structure, especially on the herbaceous community. It seems that a small set of soil factors are princiapais factors responsible for the variation over restingas coastal vegetation structure.