Rare canopy species in communities within the Atla

Authors: Rejan Rodrigues GuedesBruni Ary Gomes da Silva Waldir Mantovani

Publish Date: 2008/10/05

Volume: 18, Issue: 2, Pages: 387-403

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Abstract

Rare species are one of the principal components of the species richness and diversity encountered in Dense Ombrophilous Tropical Forests This study sought to analyze the rare canopy species within the Atlantic Coastal Forest in Rio de Janeiro State Brazil Six different communities were examined Dense Ombrophilous alluvial Forest Dense submontane Ombrophilous Forest Dense Montane Ombrophilous in Serra do Mar and Serra da Mantiqueira In each area the vegetation was sampled within forty 10 × 25 m plots alternately distributed along a linear transect All trees with DBH 13 m above ground level ≥5 cm were sampled The canopy was characterized using the allometric relationship between diameter and height and included all trees with BDH ≥10 cm and height ≥10 m A total of 64 families 206 genera and 542 species were sampled of which 297 548 represented rare species less than one individual per hectare The percentage of rare species varied from 34 to 50 in each of the different communities sampled A majority of these rare trees belonged to the Rosidae and a smaller proportion to the Dilleniidae It was concluded that there was no apparent pattern to rarity among families that rarity was probably derived from a number of processes such as gap formation and that a great majority of the rare species sampled were consistently rare This indicates that the restricted geographic distribution and high degree of endemism of many arboreal taxa justifies the conservation of even small fragments of Atlantic ForestThe authors would like to thank the Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro for its support of this work the The John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation and Petrobras for their financial support of the Programa Mata Atlântica PMA of which this research is part to the taxonomists Graziela M Barroso in memoriam Marli P Morim Haroldo C de Lima Sebastião José da Silva Neto and Alexandre Quinet for their help in the collection and identification of the botanical material and Alexandre G Christo for their help with the data base and graphic work to Dr Luiz Antonio da Silva for his help in adjust the soil nomenclature to english to CNPq for the study grants during PhD course and Professor Sir GT Prance Dr Fernando Roberto Martins UNICAMP and Dr WmWayt Thomas NYBG for comments and suggestion about this article This work is dedicated to the memory of Guilherme and Dora Guedes Dra Graziela Maciel Barroso and Dr Herman Lent

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