Tropical Rain Forest regeneration in an area degraded by mining in Mato Grosso State, Brazil

• Published in: Forest ecology and management 2004-03, Vol.190 (2), p.323-333
• Main Authors: Rodrigues, Ricardo Ribeiro, Martins, Sebastião Venâncio, de Barros, Luiz Carlos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amazon Forest; Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Demecology; Forest management. Stand types and stand dynamics. Silvicultural treatments. Tending of stands. Natural regeneration; Forest regeneration; forest succession; Forestry; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; ground vegetation; habitat fragmentation; mined soils; natural regeneration; Plants and fungi; secondary forests; spatial variation; species diversity; Stand types and stand dynamics. Silvicultural treatments. Tending of stands. Natural regeneration; Succession; temporal variation; Tropical Rain Forest; tropical rain forests
• ISSN: 0378-1127; 1872-7042
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2003.10.023

The floristic composition and structure of vegetation in natural regeneration were studied in a degraded area in Matupá County, Mato Grosso State, Brazil, originally occupied by Tropical Rain Forest. Three plots were used in the shape of a 20 m×160 m transect, divided into 10 m×20 m sub-plots, placed parallel to a remnant fragment. Transect 1 was 0–20 m from the fragment; Transect 2, 20–40 m, and Transect 3, 40–60 m from the forest fragment. The total height and diameter at soil height of all the shrubs and tree individuals (height≥0.50 m) were measured to the 5, 13 and 18 months after the area had been systematized and abandoned. Floristic and structural alterations occurred in space and time. The number of individuals, species, families and diversity increased during the time interval studied and decreased with distance from the remnant fragment. These floristic and structural alterations in the community as a whole and in the populations of the most important species, Trema micrantha (L.) Blume and Schizolobium amazonicum Huber ex Ducke, showed the tendency of a succession model by facilitation, where these pioneers would be improving the ecological conditions and thus easing the regeneration of late species. The conservation of the forest fragment in the surroundings was essential for the natural regeneration process of the forest in the degraded area.