A sucessão ecológica em ambientes florestais em restauração: estrutura e dinâmica da regeneração natural

Ecological restoration aims to restore the self-sustainability potential of degraded environments. The successional trajectory of areas in restoration may differ from the reference ecosystem on a number of factors, especially the disturbance history of the area and management techniques applied in order to reverse the degradation scenario. In this sense, the objective of this study was to characterize the dynamics of natural regeneration and the structure of the regenerating community in an area of ecological restoration for 25 years on the right bank of the Rio Grande in the Power Station in Camargos that belongs to the Companhia Energetica de Minas Gerais - CEMIG, Nazareno, MG, in order to identify the current state of environmental regeneration. In November 2014, there was the first community inventory of seedlings existing in regeneration subplots (2 x 2 m) within the inclusion criteria (height ≥ 10 cm and DBH <5 cm), divided into 44 subplots (11 plots) in two areas, one area in restoration (REF) and a fragment of native vegetation (FRAG). In October 2015, the second sampling was carried out, in which individuals were resampled and recruits and dead individuals quantified. The parameters abundance, floristic similarity, density, dominance, importance value, equability, richness and diversity were analyzed in both samples. The dynamics was evaluated for the number of individuals and basal area in the period of 2014-2015 and individuals distributed according to height. The history of usage area provoked different behavior between the study environments; the patterns of the FRAG and REF communities along the years allowed the distinction between environments and demonstrated great environmental diversity, with differences in the abundance of species, floristic similarity, richness, diversity, vertical structure and dynamics parameters. In the REF area, there was a considerable increase in the density of individuals along the years and the establishment of different species. In this sense, the evaluation of natural regeneration in REF has shown that resilience is gradually being resumed, a necessary condition to support the potential for environmental self-sustainability. However, given the disturbance history, it can be concluded that the environment moves to an alternative state, which is possibly different from that prior to degradation.

Análise da paisagem para o planejamento e a gestão da conservação da Mata Atlântica

Landscape is dynamic, having complex nature, with tangible and intangible dimensions, presenting a continuous evolution process. The aim of this research were based on the identification and classification of landscapes in units and subunits, from the ownership by individuals; the development of a methodology to assist in the planning and management, conciliating conservation of natural areas with anthropic activities; and, from the information gathered, evaluate the different social groups aiming to design a landscape from the sustainable development perspective; thus better understanding both cultural and forest fragmentation processes, in the city of Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais. The research analyzed the current landscape and its historical evolution, distinguishing between material and immaterial dimensions. Information was raised from field trips, soil types, relief, slope, drainage, conservation units, administrative zoning, urban areas, natural resources, economy, tax raising, transport and building infrastructure, satellite images, types of management applied to the preservation or conservation of forests and fields, and semi-structured interviews with the various actors that modify and transform the territory, thus making a balance between the built landscape and the demands of the society and ecosystems. Results were composed by a map of land use in 2011; a map of landscape units and their subunits, with their appropriate definitions; a map with five levels of activities intensity, with their respective descriptions; and raising barriers to improving the welfare of the actors and the integrity of ecosystems. The number of generated ecosystem services are difficult to measure, but its benefits are useful for everyone. The physical changes are a reflection of the economy, which caused environmental impacts, mainly related to mining activities, tourism, agriculture and conservation of natural areas, all requiring ideally a shared management. In this sense, the landscape needs a management to create sustainable alternatives to anthropic activities. The dynamics of the landscape has been shaped by a slow evolution, set by mining activities due to the high financial revenues, there were areas of revegetation after clearcuts in the past, and now tourism lacks structure. The city has great potential for development projects with payments for environmental services, however, gaps for shared management exists.

Four year multitrophic food web: source food web description, methodology accuracy and species diversity

Food webs have been used in order to understand the trophic relationship among organisms within an ecosystem, however the extension by which sampling efficiency could affect food web responses remain poorly understood. Still, there is a lack of long-term sampling data for many insect groups, mainly related to the interactions between herbivores and their host plants. In the first chapter, I describe a source food web based on the Senegalia tenuifolia plant by identifying the associated insect species and the interactions among them and with this host plant. Furthermore, I check for the data robustness from each trophic level and propose a cost-efficiently methodology. The results from this chapter show that the collected dataset and the methodology presented are a good tool for sample most insect richness of a source food web. In total the food web comprises 27 species belonging to four trophic levels. In the second chapter, I demonstrate the temporal variation in the species richness and abundance from each trophic level, as well as the relationship among distinct trophic levels. Moreover, I investigate the diversity patterns of the second and third trophic level by assessing the contribution of alfa and beta-diversity components along the years. This chapter shows that in our system the parasitoid abundance is regulated by the herbivore abundances. Besides, the species richness and abundances of the trophic levels vary temporally. It also shows that alfa-diversity was the diversity component that most contribute to the herbivore species diversity (2nd trophic level), while the contribution of alfa- and beta-diversity changed along the years for parasitoid diversity (3rd level). Overall, this dissertation describes a source food web and bring insights into some food web challenges related to the sampling effort to gather enough species from all trophic levels. It also discuss the relation among communities associated with distinct trophic levels and their temporal variation and diversity patterns. Finally, this dissertation contributes for the world food web database and in understanding the interactions among its trophic levels and each trophic level pattern along time and space