Ecologia das florestas sazonalmente alagadas dos rios tributários do Médio São Francisco, MG, Brasil: ecologia das florestas sazonalmente alagadas

Abstract

Currently one of the ecosystems that have most attracted the attention of researchers is the seasonally flooded forest systems due to their high biodiversity, biological, ecological and functional endemism and their ecosystem services. The frequency and intensity of flooding through the overflow of large rivers has shaped over time systems adapted to this seasonal cycle according to precipitation and their changes can be determinant in the ecology and diversity of plant species as well as other terrestrial and aquatic organisms. The aim of this thesis is to clarify the behavior of the arboreal vegetation present in these flood zones in different frequencies and intensity, trying to understand the ecology of the same and its relation with environmental factors. By means of a sampling design capable of covering different types of formations according to our objective and current statistical analysis allowed us to infer new ideas and test consecrated hypotheses about these tree communities and their relationships with environmental factors and other physiognomies in their ecological and evolutionary aspects. In a context of the biome of the Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests, these communities have different characteristics in relation to the frequency of flooding and the environmental factors are determinant in their characterization. The use of these systems by man and global climate change can alter the reality of seasonally flooded forests and lead to increasing loss of habitat and biodiversity, which we hope to help reduce or retain through the knowledge generated by this thesis.