Comunidad de lianas en bosques disturbados y no disturbados del Bosque Atlántico semideciduo en el norte de Misiones, Argentina

MARIANA VILLAGRA; ANA ALICE ELEUTERIO; CAROLINA TRENTINI; LÍA MONTTI; DÉBORA DI FRANCESCANTONIO; PAULA I. CAMPANELLO

Foz do Iguaçu

Simposio; 3 rd International Symposium of Ecology; 2018

Tropical and subtropical forest ecosystems are under constant pressure due to drastic changes in land use, fragmentation, and disturbances. The objective is to study whether changes in the composition of liana species due to the disturbance promote changes in the functional properties of the community. For this purpose, 6 plots of 1 ha were established, located in disturbed and undisturbed forest environments. Trees and vines (larger than 10 cm DBH and 2.5 cm DBH respectively) were measured on 25 10 x 10 m plots in each plot. In addition, material was collected to determine specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content and wood density of 21 species of lianas that comprise more than 80% of the individuals in the area. The results indicated that the abundance and basal area of lianas were significantly higher in the more disturbed areas (with less tree basal area) than in the more conserved areas. This increase occurred primarily by an increase in lianas with a scrambling ascent mechanism. The liana Pisonia aculeata contributed 50% of the total stems in the disturbed areas, regardless of its size category. It was found that the disturbance did not generate differences at the community level (community weight mean) in the assessed traits. Possibly due to dominant species have values of functional traits similar to the community average. In the same way, the use of functional indices (functional diversity, functional richness) showed an overlapping of the functional spaces of the communities of disturbed and undisturbed areas, pointing out that the characteristics chosen to characterize the functionality of the communities were not adequate despite the structural changes observed.