Variations in canopy gaps in different phytophysiognomies under fire effect

Abstract

Atlantic and Brazilian savanna phytogeographic domains stand out the high level of threating from forest remnants, making the ecological study of these important areas for both the Domains conservation. In nature, disturbances events are common, but human activities can aggravate the occurrence of these phenomena, for example, increasing the frequency of fire events in natural environments. Even the higher layer in the forest, the canopy, suffers directly and indirectly affected by this disturbance. Besides, canopies characteristics are decisive factor acting in the regeneration dynamics of vegetal community, regulating luminosity that reach inferior low layers of vegetation. This study aims to capture the variations in canopy gaps in an ecotone area between Savanna and Atlantic Domains in order to identify how these changes occur between the analyzed vegetation types and which is the fire influence in the upper layer of the forest. We captured variations in the forest gaps after a fire event utilizing hemispheric photos. The photos have been taking for three years in an interval of six months. We found out that similar phytophysiognomies showed similar levels of canopy coverage and displayed an oscillation pattern. Finally, it appears that fire proved to be an indirect modifier of the canopy, since the characteristics of the vegetation itself have the ability to control the impacts of this type of disturbance.

Keywords:
Luminosity; Ecological disturbances; Hemispheric photo; Vegetation