Padrões de diversidade florística em mosaicos agrícolas do Estado do Pará

Abstract

Most tropical landscapes are mainly composed of dynamic mosaics that involve multiple land uses. Changes in land use type have been identified as the main cause of global biodiversity loss. In this scenario, the objective of this thesis was to analyze the patterns of floristic diversity in three agricultural mosaics of the Pará State, Brazil, with the purpose of contributing to the advancement of knowledge about the consequences of changes in land use types in the Amazon context. The patterns of floristic diversity in agricultural mosaics were studied from three perspectives: successional process in agricultural mosaics, estimation of species richness and floristic similarity in different types of land use. The study was carried out in three rural settlements located in the municipalities of Parauapebas, Nova Ipixuna and Pacajá. Each settlement was considered as an agricultural mosaic. Tive collection points were established in nine family ranches of each mosaic. The vegetation was inventoried in three vertical strata and considered trees, shrubs, lianas, herbaceous and palm trees. Nine types of land use were classified. A detrended correspondence analysis revealed the existence of a successional floristic gradient related to land use types in each agricultural mosaic. The progression of succession was greater in agricultural mosaics where the forest cover area was larger and better conserved. The variation of species richness between different rural mosaics and land use types was analyzed at local and landscape scale through rarefaction curves established for three vertical strata of vegetation. Species richness was strongly influenced by the composition of land use types implanted in each farm in the landscape. Secondary forests had greater richness in mosaics with greater forest cover of high richness in the landscape. The Morisita-Hom index was used to compare the floristic similarity between land use types. The fragmentation of the landscape and the lower forest cover had deleterious effects on the average similarity between the land use types of the agricultural mosaics. The highest number of rare species was associated with the land use types most advanced in succession and present in mosaics with higher forest cover.