Ecological drivers of tree diversity and ecosystem functioning during succession in Amazon: forest resilience after indigenous shifting cultivation

• Ano de defesa: 2018
• Autor(a) principal: Villa, Pedro Manuel
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Viçosa
• Palavras-chave em Português: Agrossilvicultura; Amazônia; Sucessão ecológica; Índios Piaroa; Ecossistemas; Recuperação de Áreas Degradadas
• Link de acesso: http://www.locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/21157

The Amazon forest is being threatened by land use changes for the agricultural expansion, causing a taxonomic and functional simplification, and consequently generating negative impacts on the relation of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Thus, the main objective of this research was to evaluate the effects of ecological drivers on taxonomic and functional diversity (alpha and beta) and their relationship with ecosystem functioning during the secondary succession of an Amazon forest, in Amazonas state, Venezuela. For this reason, this research was divided into seven chapters, two chapters to describe the effects of the land use pattern on the recovery of diversity and loss of forest resilience, two chapters to explain the effects of environmental and anthropogenic drivers on taxonomic diversity and functional (alpha and beta) and effects on ecosystem functioning during the succession, and three chapters as recommendations for the management and conservation of Amazonian forests. We used plant inventory data from 63 plots (1000 m 2 , 20 x 50 m) at six sites with five and 10 year regeneration secondary forests after one to six cycles of shifting cultivation to evaluate the effect of different intensities of use land, as well as soil fertility in the recovery of forest diversity and structure. We also analyzed changes in the diversity and composition of tree species after a single cycle of shifting cultivation, using data from 45 plots distributed in four secondary forests (5, 10, 15, and 20 years old after cultivation) and a mature forest (> 100 years). Within each sampling area three plots of 1000 m2 (20 x 50 m for trees with DBH> 5 cm) were established. In each area a soil sample was collected at different depths (0-10 cm). Thus, we analyzed ecological and environmental drivers and patterns of taxonomic and functional diversity (alpha and beta), and the effects of stand age and soil quality (fertility and texture) on the storage of above-ground biomass through functional diversity and functional dominance during the secondary succession. We use different statistical methods and types of models to test these ecological relationships. In this study, we show how the intensity of land use induces a loss of forest resilience. On the contrary, it is evident that with intermediate disturbances after a single cycle of agriculture a rapid recovery of diversity occurs, reaching 70% of the richness of one mature forest after 20 years. However, the recovery of the species composition in the same period reached an average of 25% in relation to the mature forest. Our study shows that beta diversity accounts for up to 70% of the variation in total species richness among sites, probably because deforested patches are embedded within a mature forest matrix. This ecological context also justifies the high taxonomic turnover during the succession. Thus, the functional diversity was lower than the taxonomic beta diversity, probably due to a lower functional turnover in comparison to the taxonomic turnover. Our results provide important evidence on the relation between biodiversity and ecosystem function (BEF) during the secondary succession of a tropical forest. Thus, the structural equation models (SEM) tested on functional dominance and functional diversity allowed to explain variations in the above-ground biomass individually. The succession time was the best predictor to explain above- ground biomass variations in all SEM models, followed by soil texture that had significant positive effects on above-ground biomass compared to soil fertility that had negative effects and not significant. Our study contributes to the understanding of the BEF relationship throughout the secondary succession, and may help predict how tropical forests will respond to future scenarios of climate change. For this reason, we have argued that in order to increase the efficiency in the implementation of REDD+ strategies in Amazonian forests, it is necessary to simultaneously understand the relationship of patterns and processes of forest ecosystems with the socio-ecological system, through the analysis of biophysical and anthropogenic predictors, from a local level to a regional scale.