Influence of Soil Physical Properties on Plants of the Mussununga Ecosystem, Brazil

Water content, fibres, and herbivory in leaves of two distinct and adjacent tree communities of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

“…It is composed of trees with less dense canopies, allowing higher light penetration to the soils. Soils are classified as hydromorphic podzol with a sandy texture, with a shallow water table that rises to the surface during certain times of the year (Garay et al 2003, Saporetti-Junior et al 2012, Rolim et al 2016b. The trees reach approximately 10 m in height, although some emergent species can grow up to 20 m , Rolim et al 2016b).…”

Open-Source Processing and Analysis of Aerial Imagery Acquired with a Low-Cost Unmanned Aerial System to Support Invasive Plant Management

“…These vegetation patches are spread out in a matrix of Eucalyptus plantation and Brazilian Atlantic Forest (IBGE, 2004) having rounded to amoeboid shapes which greatly vary in size (less than one to hundreds of hectares). Mussununga vegetation is strictly associated with nutrient-poor, acidic, sandy soils formed through podzolization as a consequence of high humidity and hydromorphism (Saporetti-Junior et al, 2012;Ferreira et al, 2014). Our Mussununga study area was dominated by grasses and monocots with scattered patches of dwarf shrubs and small trees (Figure 2A).…”

“…The climate is classified as Tropical with no dry season (Af) in the Köppen classification system (Alvares et al, 2013), with annual mean precipitation around 1750 mm (Saporetti-Junior et al, 2012), and mean temperature around 26 • C. Vegetation in the region is highly fragmented and predominantly composed of Atlantic rainforest remnants, Mussununga, eucalyptus plantations, pasture and crops. Mussununga is a heterogeneous savanna-type formation of different physiognomies, from grasslands, dominated by few species of monocots; savanna, composed of one layer of herbaceous plants and another layer of scattered woody plants; and woodland formed by a closed canopy (Saporetti-Junior et al, 2012;Ferreira et al, 2014;Lima et al, 2015). These vegetation patches are spread out in a matrix of Eucalyptus plantation and Brazilian Atlantic Forest (IBGE, 2004) having rounded to amoeboid shapes which greatly vary in size (less than one to hundreds of hectares).…”

Phylogenetic community structure reveals differences in plant community assembly of an oligotrophic white-sand ecosystem from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

“…The occurrence of different physiognomies and patterns of species richness in Mussununga vegetation is correlated with soil properties and landscape relief (Saporetti-Junior et al 2012). Mussununga means "soft and wet white sand" in the Amerindian Tupi-Guarani language (Meira-Neto et al 2005), and thus Mussununga vegetation refers to an oligotrophic savanna-type of formation endemic to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest in southern Bahia and northern Espírito Santo states where it occurs on shallow sandy Spodsol patches (IBGE 2004;Araujo et al 2008;Simonelli et al 2008).…”

“…Mussununga woodlands, on the other hand, are covered by a dense tree stratum with a sparsely-distributed herbaceous layer (Batalha et al 2001). These physiognomies occupy restricted ranges on abiotic gradients of water availability, nutrient supply and intensity of fire (Saporetti-Junior et al 2012). Mussununga grasslands are established on the harsher end of the gradient characterized by low nutrient and low water retention due to a higher percentage of coarse sand and reduced soil depths (until the Ortstein stratum) as well as frequent and intense inundations during the rainy season.…”