Ferruginous Rupestrian Savannah: a floristic and structural analysis of these rare environments

By

Pereira, Cássio Cardoso
Santos Soares, Fernanda De Fátima
Fonseca, Rúbia Santos
Henriques, Nathália Ribeiro
Arruda, Daniel Meira

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2019-11-26

Original Publication

Neotropical Biology and Conservation

Volume

14

Series / Issue

Issue: 4

Pages

381--397

Subjects

Brazilian flora , cerrado sensu stricto , floristic similarity , ironstone outcrop , species distribution

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Brazil Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/neotropical.14.e47228

 

Abstract

The flora of the Rupestrian Savannah (Cerrado Rupestre) is composed of widely distributed species and endemic species from high altitude rocky outcrops. The aim of this study was to characterise the floristic composition, structure and diversity of fragments of Rupestrian Savannah in south-eastern Brazil and to examine the similarity with other rupestrian cerrado vegetations and with cerradosensu strictoon profound soils. For this, phytosociological parameters, evenness and diversity were calculated and compared with other studies. The survey exhibited 72 species, 45 genera, 30 families and high floristic similarity with cerrado on profound soils. There were no indicator species of the Rupestrian Savannah, but there were typical species of rocky environments. The basal area was significantly larger in the profound soil cerrado in relationship to the Rupestrian Savannah and evenness was lower in the Rupestrian Savannah of this study compared to others. These variables reflect the lower exploration capacity of the root of rocky environments. The highest similarity between the Rupestrian Savannah and cerrado on profound soils refers to the canga ferruginous nature, which represents the limit of the tableland of cerrado on the edge of the plateaus, allowing greater sharing of flora.