Competição, facilitação ou teoria neutra? um estudo das interações e de sua importância na estrutura de uma comunidade vegetal em regeneração

Resumo

Nowadays, most ecologists have been working based only on “negative” interactions, such as predation and competition. However, recent studies suggest that facilitative interactions can be as important as the negative ones, and their inclusion in ecological models may produce surprising results. This study aimed at clarifying if some plant species can develop facilitative or competitive actions in relation to others and was carried out in an area recently used in a reforestation project to recover its gallery forest. Forty points planted in the reforestation project were randomly chosen to evaluate the plant species present in the surrounding area and measure their dry weight. The results did not show any differences between the points where the reforestation was successful or unsuccessful or the presence of an indicator species. Although it was not possible to identify the most important type of interaction occurring in this community, it should be pointed out that its structure might have been influenced by stochastic factors, as suggested by the Neutral Theory. These results could also imply that this community is still on an early stage of succession, presenting a high proportion of r-selected species.

Descrição

Palavras-chave

Competição, Comunidades vegetais, Facilitação, Teoria neutra, Competition, Vegetal communities, Facilitation, Neutral theory

Citação

CARVALHO, Rodrigo Assis de; VITAL, Marcos Vinícius Carneiro; COSTA, Diogo Andrade; SILVA, Leo Caetano Fernandes da; VIEIRA, Ludgero Cardoso Galli; SILVEIRA, Allan Valle Toledo da; LIMA FILHO, Guilherme Ferreira de. Competição, facilitação ou teoria neutra? um estudo das interações e de sua importância na estrutura de uma comunidade vegetal em regeneração. Revista de Biologia Neotropical, Goiânia, v. 4, n. 2, p. 117-123, jul./dez. 2007. Disponível em: <https://www.revistas.ufg.br/RBN/article/view/5211/4279>.