Comunidades similares em flora podem apresentar arranjos estruturais distintos?

Abstract

The Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests (SDTF) in the extreme south of the Caatinga Domain are extremely heterogeneous environments, whose soil and water availability are the main resources that influence the composition and structure of communities. In order to understand how the mechanisms and functioning of the SDTF, this work sought to answer the following question: do the plant communities in the SDTF present structural differences between the floristic groups? Data from eighteen fragments of tree vegetation and soil samples (chemical and textural) were used. To answer this question, we calculated the phytosociological parameters, performed floristic grouping using the Bray-Curtis method to form groups, compared data on structure and diversity indices through boxplots, using non-metric Multidimensional Analysis (NMDS) through an abundance matrix and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for soil attributes. The results showed that there are four distinct floristic groups that have differences in the structure of the communities and these groups are mediated by environmental conditions and partially by soil attributes, fertility and acidity, acting on the floristic groups and the structure of these forests.