Floristic and phytogeographic pattern of native field in southeastern Brazil

Abstract

The waterlogging of soils creates selective environments for plant species. The frequency and duration of flooding influence the responses to ecological processes, determining the structure and floristic composition of vegetation formations. We investigated the relationship between floristic composition and environmental heterogeneity of native field, one physiognomic type found interspersed with semideciduous forest in the plains in the northern part of the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil, which is characterized by varying degrees of waterlogging. Our results indicate that the differentiation of physiognomic types of native field is related to the frequency and duration of waterlogging to which each is subjected, resulting in a somewhat shared flora, dominated by phanerophytes. Flooding was also found to account for differences between the areas analyzed in terms of the soil pH, which ranged from strongly acid to extremely acid. The geographic proximity between the native field studied and areas of muçununga (or mussununga, a coastal forest ecosystem associated with the Atlantic Forest) did not increase the floristic similarity between the two.

Keywords

• Atlantic Forest
• groundwater depth
• muçununga
• Vale Nature Reserve
• soil