Dendroecologia de Nectandra megapotamica (Spreng.) Mez. (Lauraceae) em florestas subtropicais de altitude: efeitos climáticos e de distúrbios no crescimento

Abstract

Dendroecology is the branch of science that studies growth rings. These represent the annual diametric increment of plants and provide valuable information about the dynamics of population development and the relationship and response of their growth with surrounding environmental factors, such as climate and environmental disturbances. A science created and well established in temperate regions, it still needs to identify potential species for studies of this nature in tropical and subtropical zones. In these regions, the Lauraceae family presents itself as one of the most rich species, extremely important in the formation of forest communities, with many good species forming growth rings. This is the case of Nectandra megapotamica, a generally evergreen tree species, with a wide and plastic distribution in the subtropical zones of South America, from the Andes to the Atlantic coast, from dry to waterlogged areas, and which does not have careful dendrochronological studies. In order to expand this knowledge, this dissertation investigated in an altitude Atlantic forest, whether the well-demarcated growth layers of this species are in fact annual, whether they present correlations with climate over time, and whether a sudden release of competition for resources, due to selective cutting of araucarias from the upper stratum of the forest, has an influence on the secondary growth of the plant. N. megapotamica is abundant in subtropical forest formations, and may be promising for dendroecological studies.