Seed rain as an ecological indicator of forest restoration in the Pampa biome

Abstract

This study evaluated seed rain in different forest formation soil uses in the Serra do Sudeste region, Pampa biome. Four area were selected: active restoration (Area 1), passive restoration (Area 2), eucalyptus commercial plantation (Area 3) and native forest (Area 4). Ten permanent collectors of 1 m² each were installed in each area, being suspended 1 meter above the soil surface. Collections were made monthly for twelve months in 2018. The analyzed variables were: the number of morphospecies, number of individuals, the indices of Margalef richness, Pielou evenness, Shannon diversity, Jaccard floristic similiarity, and possible correlations by detrended correspondence analysis (DCA). Total number of seeds sampled during the period was 239,988, distributed across 116 morphospecies. The area under active restoration (Area 1) did not differ statistically by the Kruskall-Wallis test (p < 0.05) of the native forest (Area 4) for the number of seeds. Area 1 presented a higher number of morphospecies and greater diversity of species, followed by Area 4. Seed rain can be a promising ecological indicator for the conditions of the present study.