Forest fragment grouping analysis under selective logging in Amazonian biome

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyse the existence of floristic groups in Seasonal Semi-deciduous Forest fragments under the effects of selective logging located in Tapurah-MT. The given clusters were allocated and measured, and each one had five subunits of 500 m². For each sampling unit, all of the arboreal and shrub species with a diameter at breast height (DBH) equal to or greater than 10 cm were considered. In the sampling subunits studied, the vegetation matrix was composed of the density of the 20 species in the fragment with the greatest importance. The presence of floristic groups was verified by a grouping analysis through the species association method. Euclidean distance with Hellinger’s transformation was used as a similarity measure between the groupings, and Ward’s linking method was used for the dendrogram elaboration. The number of groups was established by Kendall’s coefficient, and correlations between the groups and the species were assessed. Once the concordance was determined, the number of groups in which the species were correlated was chosen. The species’ auto-ecological characteristics, mainly the propagating material dispersion type and average DBH, were the main factors responsible for the species association and similarity inside each floristic group.