Características foliares e índices de reflectância espectral em um gradiente sucessional de uma floresta tropical seca

Abstract

Features and foliar spectral reflectance indices in a successional gradient of a Tropical Dry Forest Leaf characteristics are often cited as key indicators of the relationship between resource use by plants , investment in biomass and ecosystem functioning , because they are easily quantifiable and are strongly related to the physiology of plants. The Tropical Dry Forests are still few studied and the optical properties of species at this environment. The presence of successional stages in TDFs may cause the process of selecting traits and environmental filtering in species existing on a local scale. The aim of this study was to evaluate the phenotypic plasticity in leaf traits and their influence on the pattern of herbivory and leaf reflectance in three species distributed along a successional gradient in a FTS in northern Minas Gerais, Brazil. Was studied: Poincianella pluviosa, present in all successional stages, early, intermediate and late; Handroanthus ochraceus present only in the first two of stages and Handroanthus reticulatus present exclusively in the last two. We evaluated the contents of chlorophyll a, b, total, carotenoids and water as well as the percentage of leaf area damaged, sclerophylly and spectral reflectance indices mND705, mSR705 and WI. The results showed that there are traces of phenotypic plasticity among species mainly in regards to the physiological characteristics of this forest. The contents of pigments except carotenoids were well correlated with leaf indices. Herbivory and WI index was not influenced by any of the evaluated components and water content respectively.