Tree Species Composition, Structure, and Aboveground Wood Biomass of a Riparian Forest of the Lower Miranda River, Southern Pantanal, Brazil

• Florian Wittmann ^[2] ; Bianca Thaís Zorzi ^[1] ; Fernando Augusto Tambelini Tizianel ^[1] ; Marcus Vinicius Santiago Urquiza ^[1] ; Rogério Rodrigues Faria ^[1] ; Nathália Machado e Sousa ^[1] ; Érica de Souza Módena ^[1] ; Roberto Macedo Gamarra ^[1] ; Augusto Lisboa Martins Rosa ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul

     Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul

     Brasil

     
  2. [2] Biogeochemistry Department, Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany
• Localización: Folia geobotánica: A journal of plant ecology and systematics, ISSN-e 1874-9348, ISSN 1211-9520, Vol. 43, Nº 4, 2008, págs. 397-411
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The aboveground wood biomass (AWB) of tropical forests plays an important role in the global carbon cycle, and local AWB estimates provide essential data that enable the extrapolation of biomass stocks to ecosystem or biome-wide carbon cycle modelling. Few AWB estimates exist in Neotropical freshwater floodplains, where tree species distribution and forest structure depend on the height and duration of periodic inundations. We investigated tree species composition, forest structure, wood specific gravity, and AWB of trees ≥10 cm dbh in 16 plots totalling an area of 1 ha in a seasonally inundated riparian forest of the lower Miranda River, southern Pantanal, Brazil. The 443 tree individuals belonged to 46 species. Four species (Inga vera, Ocotea suaveolens, Tabebuia heptaphylla and Cecropia pachystachya) comprised more than 50% of the Total Importance Values (TIV), and floristic similarities between the plots averaged 38%. Although we detected an overall increase in species diversity correlated with decreasing flood levels, the most important tree species had almost identical distribution patterns along the flooding gradient. The stand basal area per plot (± s.d.) amounted to 3.0 ± 1.1 m2 (47.8 ± 18.1 m2/ha), and the tree heights averaged 10.9 ± 1.4 m. Multiplying the individual basal areas by individual tree heights and a form factor of 0.6, we estimated the aboveground wood volume (AWV) for each individual, and for each plot (24.4 ± 11.7 m3, 391.1 ± 188 m3/ha). Wood specific gravity (SG) varied between 0.39 g/cm3 (Cecropia pachystachya) and 0.87 g/cm3 (Tabebuia heptaphylla), with a stand level average of 0.63 ± 0.12 g/cm3. Multiplying the individual AWV with species SG, we estimated the plot AWB to be 16.2 ± 6.4 Mg (259.4 ± 102 Mg/ha). This value is comparable to that reported for late-successional forest stands of Amazonian floodplain forests, and it is close to the worldwide tropical average AWB. Because tree heights in the present forest were comparatively low when compared to other Neotropical forests, we found that resprouting of stems accounted for comparatively high basal areas. We argue that stem resprouting is an adaptation of tree species originating in non-flooded Cerrado to the seasonal inundations of riparian forests.