Diversidade beta e funcional de comunidades arbóreas ao longo de um gradiente altitudinal no Nordeste do Brasil

Abstract

Biological diversity can influence the structure and operation of communities in various ways, such as by altering the complementarity of resource use by species. Ways to quantify the beta and functional diversity are being developed and questions about the species relationships (phylogeny) or its functional characteristics should be better predictors of the ecological processes of comunidades.Podemos divide this essay into two chapters. The first chapter aims to partition the tree species diversity along an altitudinal gradient, which were allocated 375 points quadrants, divided into three altitudinal quotas. Through NMDS, we observe the ordination of three groups positively related to altitudinal quota that were inserted. The PERMIDISP showed that the community structure varied from 32.91 to 41.35 relative to the centroid of each cluster. The NMDS formed groups according to their position along the altitudinal gradient, so the composition and structure of the vegetation area are associated with altitude. So we suggest that alpha and beta diversity found in this study suggest a high heterogeneity in the dry forests of the Brazilian semiarid region. In the second chapter used the approach of functional diversity, the present study aims to identify and characterize functional types of plants, along an altitudinal grouped according to a set of attributes and foliar timber. Based on the hypothesis that it is possible to detect from a set of attributes selecionadosm cohesive functional groups of woody plants along an altitudinal. The dendrogram showed the formation of four functional groups, which were formed along the altitudinal gradient and were not related to the altitude. The G1 composed of five species, presents species with low leaf area and low specific leaf area, this group species invest in the sheet protection. The G2 consists of four species, grouped species with high specific leaf area, leaf area high and low wood density. G3 presented species with high wood density, average values of specific leaf area and low leaf area, consisting of three species of relatively slow growth. The G4 formed by species introduced high wood density, high specific leaf area and high leaf area. The formation of the functional groups was satisfactory to represent the role played by the group of species with similar characteristics in the forest.