Diss. (sammanfattning) Univ. : Linköping, 2001. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Orientador: Anselmo Nogueira / Resumo: Questões: Como é o padrão da diversidade e composição de espécies lenhosas ao longo do cerrado sensu stricto? Quais fatores abióticos estruturam essa diversidade e composição de espécies? Localização: Região do Cerrado no central do Brasil. Metodologia: Distribuímos 34 parcelas permanentes em sete unidades de conservação que possuíssem porções de vegetação cerrado sensu stricto. Aplicando modelos lineares mistos para investigar como é o padrão de distribuição da diversidade – riqueza e alfa de Fisher – e composição de espécies estariam relacionados com os fatores edáficos, climáticos e de pontos de incêndios, no qual o sítio foi tratado como variável randômica nos modelos. Para as análises de composição de espécies utilizamos dados de ocorrência e aplicamos um índice de dissimilaridade estendido para obter os eixos de ordenação em análises de coordenadas principais (PCoA). Análises de matrizes de Mantel simples e parcial também foram aplicados para explorar o papel do espaço na estruturação da comunidade e dos fatores abióticos. Resultados: Embora em nossa escala de amostragem não tenha sido possível identificar fatores preditivos da riqueza de espécies lenhosas, a composição de espécies esteve relacionada com o gradiente de precipitação e frequência dos pontos de incêndio ao longo do Cerrado. Os fatores edáficos não parecem ser determinantes, e sua importância relativa deve ser menor dentro dessa fitofisionomia do Cerrado ou na escala sob estudo. Embora o fogo, como fonte de... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Questions: How is the diversity pattern and composition of woody species through cerrado sensu stricto? Which abiotic factors structure this species diversity and composition? Location: Brazilian’s central Cerrado region Methodology: We distributed 34 permanent plots into seven conservation units that had portions of cerrado sensu stricto vegetation. Applying the linear mixed model to investigate how the diversity distribution pattern and species composition would be related with edaphic factors, climatic, and fire frequency in which the site was treated as random variable in the models. For the analysis of species composition, we used a dataset of occurrence, and we applied an index of extended dissimilarity to obtain the ordered axis in Principal Coordination of Analysis (PCoA). Analyses of simple and partial Mantel were also applied to explore the role of distance in the community structural and abiotic factors. Results: Although in our scale of samples were not possible to identify predictive factors of woody species richness, the composition of species were related with the precipitation gradient and frequency of fire frequency through Cerrado. The edaphic factors do not seem to be determined, and its relative importance should be lower in the fitofisionomy of Cerrado or the studied scale. Though the fire, as a source of disturbance recurrent on Cerrado, has given more significant importance in literature explaining a great part of differences in the vegetation biomass b... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

The purpose of this study was to correlate the Vegetation of the Woodbine Sands with the edaphic factors. In the laboratory an analysis of the edephic factors was made of the twenty-two soil types collected from the three formations. The results of these and other analysis are shown in tables and graphs. The results indicate that the vegetational cover of an area that is uniform in its origin and in its resident soil factors is determined by the edaphic factors present.

Natural forests are characterised by great vegetation diversity and create habitats for a major part of Earth’s terrestrial organisms. Plantation forests, which are mainly composed of a few genera of fast-growing trees, constitute an increasing fraction of global forests, but they only partly compensate for loss of area, habitat and ecological functions in natural forests. Plantation forests established near natural forests can be expected to serve as buffers, but they seem to be relatively poor in invertebrate species and it is not clear why. This bachelor’s degree project aimed at establishing the ecological and edaphic factors that correlate with soil invertebrate diversity in dry upland forests and surrounding plantation forests in eastern Africa. Some aspects of the above-ground vegetation heterogeneity were investigated since this was assumed to influence the heterogeneity of the soil environment, which is considered as critical for soil biodiversity. The obtained knowledge may be valuable in conservation activities in East African forests, which are threatened by destruction, fragmentation and exotic species. The study area was Karura Forest, a dry upland forest in Nairobi, Kenya. Three different sites were investigated; a natural forest site characterized by the indigenous tree species Brachylaena huillensis and Croton megalocarpus, and two different plantation forest sites, characterized by the exotic species Cupressus lusitanica and Eucalyptus paniculata, respectively. For each forest type, six plots were visited. Soil invertebrates were extracted from collected soil and litter samples by sieving and Berlese-Tullgren funnels. The invertebrates were identified, and the taxonomic diversity calculated at the order level. The ecological and edaphic factors, measured or calculated for each plot, were tree species diversity, ratio of exotic tree species, vertical structure of trees, vegetation cover, vegetation density, litter quality, soil pH, soil temperature and soil moisture. One-way ANOVA was used to compare soil invertebrate diversity and other variables between different forest types. Akaike’s Information Criterion and Multiple Linear Regression were used to establish linear models with variables that could explain measured variations of the diversity. There was some evidence for higher soil invertebrate diversity in natural forests than in surrounding plantation forests. The abundance of soil invertebrates was also clearly higher in natural forests, which indicates that natural forests are more important than plantation forests for conservation of soil invertebrate populations. Soil invertebrate diversity (in terms of number of orders present) was found to be influenced by forest type and litter quality. The diversity was higher at places with high amounts of coarse litter, which here is considered as more heterogenous than fine litter. The dependence on forest type was partly a consequence of differences in soil pH since Eucalyptus trees lower soil pH and thereby also soil biodiversity. No relation to heterogeneity of above-ground vegetation was found. For future conservation activities in Karura Forest Reserve it is recommended to continue removing exotic plant species and replanting indigenous trees, to prioritize the removal of Eucalyptus trees before Cypress trees, to only remove a few trees at a time and to establish ground vegetation when doing so.