Water and light stresses drive acclimation during the establishment of a timber tree under different intensities of rainforest canopy coverage

MORETTI, ANA PAULA; OLGUIN, FLAVIA Y.; PINAZO, MARTÍN A; GRACIANO, CORINA

CERNE

UNIV FEDERAL LAVRAS-UFLA

Año: 2019 vol. 25 p. 93 - 104

0104-7760

The loss of structure, diversity and functions in the rainforests makes it necessary to developactive strategies to restore their economic and ecological values. Planting selected speciescan help to catalyze ecosystem restoration. The capacity of the plants to survive andgrow in the rainforests, where the canopy coverage changes stochastically, is associatedwith the intrinsic requirements of the species and their phenotypic plasticity. We used amid-succession subtropical tree (Cabralea canjerana) to describe the morphological andphysiological changes in plant acclimation to full sun and under a closed canopy, and toevaluate the establishment of this species under different intensity of canopy coveragein the rainforest. Traits related with light and water use were analyzed to identify ifplants were suffering light or water stresses. Plants changed several morphological andphysiological traits related with water and light use, to acclimate to different coverings.Water deficit stress drove acclimation under full sun while the stress by excess of light wasirrelevant. However low light availability limited growth under the closed forest canopy.Consistently, the better growth and physiological performance were observed in thecenter of the gaps. The capacity of this species to acclimate both to high and low coverageand to survive makes it appropriate for enrichment programs in tropical and subtropicalrainforests. The evaluation of morpho-physiological traits, even in a pot experiment, isuseful to know the capacity of the species to survive and grow in different environmentsin the rainforest.