Assessing the potential ofAraucaria angustifolia(Araucariaceae) as a nurse plant in highland grasslands of south Brazil

Conifer demography in forest–grassland mosaics: a landscape-scale study over a 24-year period

“…Furthermore, Araucaria abundance in the grassland was much lower than in forest patches, and crown breakage was almost twice as common in the grassland than in forest patches. These results suggest that, despite Araucaria being the main nurse plant colonizing the grasslands and leading forest nucleation (Korndörfer et al 2014), grasslands represent harsh habitats for this species. Trees in grasslands are exposed to strong winds, lightning, and human-induced fire (Blanco et al 2014, Primicia et al 2015, Henderson et al 2016.…”

“…In landscapes containing mosaics of grasslands and mixed conifer-angiosperm forests, conifers play a pivotal role as both dominant forest species and as nurse plants facilitating forest succession in the grasslands through nucleation and forest patch edge expansion (Oliveira and Pillar 2005, Duarte et al 2007, Korndörfer et al 2014. They have been found to be long-lived pioneers capable of remaining in the community as established adults for centuries (Oliveira et al 2010) but whose degree of shadeintolerance make them dependent upon large-scale disturbances for recruitment opportunities (Enright and Ogden 1995, Enright et al 1999, Poorter et al 2006, Brodribb et al 2012.…”

Floristic-functional variation of tree component along an altitudinal gradient in araucaria forest areas, in Southern Brazil

“…While a greater maximum potential height may represent a competitive advantage to light acquisition (Falster and Westoby 2003), a smaller specific leaf area is frequently observed for species occurring in dry or cold climate (Reich et al 1997(Reich et al , 2003. In fact, Araucaria angustifolia is described as an open area colonizer species, common in south Brazil highlands, playing an important role as a nurse element in forest expansion process (Korndörfer et al 2015).…”

Variación espacio-temporal de la regeneración natural arbórea y arbustiva de bosque de alta montaña en etapa inicial de desarrollo en el sur de Brasil

“…Hay varios factores ecológicos determinantes en este proceso, como aquellos de naturaleza estocástica y determinística, que determinan las características estructurales y espaciales de la vegetación (Silveira et al 2017). El agrupamiento espacial de los individuos muertos y reclutados sugiere, respectivamente, la influencia de factores dependientes de la densidad (por ejemplo, competencia inter e intraespecífica; Larson et al 2016) y de nucleación (por ejemplo, perchas naturales, micrositios favorables a la regeneración; Korndörfer et al 2015). Por otro lado, patrones completamente aleatorios pueden surgir de la influencia de factores estocásticos (Salami et al 2014), como, por ejemplo, eventos climáticos extremos en la mortalidad de individuos.…”