Native tree plantations can offer opportunitiesy to recover tree diversity in Atlantic Forest in Misiones, Argentina

MEDINA MICAELA; PEREZ FLORES MAGALI; RITTER LUIS; GOYA JUAN FRANCISCO; PINAZO MARTIN ALCIDES; ARTURI MARCELO FABIAN

Foz de Iguazu

Congreso; The VII World Conference on Ecological Restoration ? SER2017; 2017

Native tree plantations can offer opportunities for recovering tree diversity in Atlantic Forest in Misiones, Argentina Medina, Perez Flores, Ritter, Goya, Pinazo, Arturi Tree plantations can facilitate the recovery of tree diversity in degraded landscapes. The Atlantic Forest is a diverse eco-region with only 7% its original area remaining today. About 40% of this area is in Misiones in a fragmented landscape with secondary native forest in a productive matrix. We evaluated if Araucaria angustifolia managed with long rotation age might be a good tool for recovering tree diversity. In twenty plantations older than 30 year we registered all woody species > 5 cm DBH (diameter at 1.30 m height) in 1200 m2 circular plots. We estimated the percentage cover of native forest surrounding each plot in 300 m2 by ISODATA method by LANDSAT 7 satellite images. We calculated rarefaction curves accumulating sampling sites and individuals in Vegan package in R software. All sampled plantations were surrounded by more than 20% of native forest. In 1.2 ha we found 40 species for trees (individuals >10 cm DBH) and 70 species of small trees (5-10 cm DBH). Species accumulation on the basis of individuals was higher for trees than for small trees. Well conserved forest in the studied region exhibit 70-80 tree species in 1 ha. Thus, native trees in plantations area reach a lower diversity than native forest while small trees diversity approximates better. However, rarefaction curves based on individuals suggest higher evenness for trees which exhibit lower diversity due to lower density. The management of araucaria plantations might be conducted to increasing small trees growth in order to reach higher tree diversity.