Capões de floresta nebular no Parque Estadual da Serra do Papagaio, Minas Gerais: composição, estrutura e heterogeneidade ambiental

Abstract

Tropical montane cloud forests occur along the tropical regions of the world, usually associated with mountainous areas. They are characterized principally by frequent cloud immersion. They show a group of characteristics that distinguish them from other tropical moist forests, like small canopy height, high density of stems and high epiphytic biomass. The drivers that cause these characteristics are still not entirely known. This work aims to characterize tree community and relations to environmental variables in ten cloud forests patches on Serra do Papagaio State Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil. In each patch, ten plots of 10m x 20m were random allocated, where all trees with circumference at breast height equal or greater then 15,5cm were sampled. In each plot, surface soil samples were collected to chemical and physical analysis. 4673 trees, representing 89 species, were sampled. The forest patches showed a fairly homogeneous composition and structure. Although there is environmental heterogeneity between forest patches, this variation was not related to their tree community. Cloud forest patches of Serra do Papagaio State Park have a great importance to biodiversity conservation for harbor important populations of endangered species.