TITLE:
Natural Regeneration and Biological Invasion by Pinus caribaea Morelet in Two Vereda Sites: Woody Vegetation Response
AUTHORS:
Danúbia Magalhães Soares, André R. Terra Nascimento, Lorena Cunha Silva, Gastão Viégas de Pinho Júnior
KEYWORDS:
Woody Species, Ecological Patterns, Invasive Potential, Humid Areas
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.6 No.17,
October
30,
2015
ABSTRACT: Veredas are regarded as humid complexes of ecological, water and scenery significance in Cerrado
biome related to water table outcrop. Direct alterations in these environments can lead to species
diversity reduction and also facilitate biological invasion processes. Thus our study aims to investigate
the natural regeneration, the coverage of woody vegetation and the invasive species in two
sites in secondary successional stage in the central part of Cerrado biome. Our study was carried
out at two sites located at Minas Gerais state, Brazil. We established plots randomly throughout
transects laid perpendicularly to the vereda’s drain line. We used the line intercept method to
analyze the vegetation coverage. We set five 10-m width transects in each of both areas, perpendicular
to the vereda’s drain line to evaluate the distribution of invasive alien species in the two
areas. The richness did not vary between communities (U = 67.50; p = 0.061); on the other hand
we found significant difference in density estimates (U = 36.50; p = 0.002). We found significant
difference between categories for soil coverage in both sites. Grasses showed the highest coverage
when compared to the other categories (K = 45.06; p