OCORRÊNCIA E RESPOSTAS ESTRUTURAIS DE UMA PLANTA DO CERRADO EM RELAÇÃO AO EFEITO DE BORDA E EXPOSIÇÃO SOLAR

Abstract

Habitat fragmentation is considered one of the greatest threats to biological diversity, capable of generating impacts on the ecosystem by dramatically increasing the amount of edge in landscapes. Fact associated with reduced habitat quality, mainly for native species. When dealing with plants, the edge effect can affect their abundance, distribution, phenology and morphology, which may result in significant impacts on plant structure and composition. Thus, the objective of the work was to understand the development of Banisteriopsis malifolia (Ness Mart.) B. Gates (Malpighiaceae), a cerrado plant, under a possible edge effect. The study area was the Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural (Uberlândia, MG), where architectural data were collected from the individuals of B. malifolia, and then an estimate of the incidence of light of each plant was carried out. In the statistical analyses, linear and multiple regression was performed. In addition to additional analyses with chi-square test, Spearman correlation and ANOVA-2-way. The results show that the edge distance affected the structure of the plant population, both in its distribution by the area and in its structural complexity, since there were more plants on the edges. In a light, our study provides concrete evidence that B. malifolia is tolerant to the edge effect caused by fragmentation, showing persistent and capable of maintaining itself in different environments. It is interesting to investigate other species with the same functional attributes of B. malifolia, because the natural history of plants directly influences the biodiversity associated with them.