Distribuição espacial de Attalea vitrivir Zona em áreas de cerrado

Abstract

The babassu species Attalea vitrivir Zona occurs in the north of Minas Gerais to the south of Bahia. However, studies that characterize the microscale spatial pattern within populations are unknown.This work aimed to evaluate the levels of spatial aggregation and to characterize the spatial distribution of the species throughout its geographical area of occurrence. For that, adult individuals were sampled in seven areas/populations, four of which are located within the Environmental Protection Area of River Pandeiros (APA Pandeiros), municipalities of Januária and Bonito de Minas, MG. The parameters used to define the adopted adults were the presence of reproductive events (flowers or fruits). The registration of the geographical positions (x and y) of all individuals sampled in the population was carried out with the aid of a GPS device. The neighborhood density second order function (NDF - Neighborhood Density Function) was used in intervals of distance classes (t) between 2 and 20m. The spatial pattern obtained by univariate analysis showed variations, being of the aggregated type in initial distances and random for superior distances. Thus, it is concluded that there is a good dispersion of seeds/fruits with increasing distance, which may be the main cause of determining the random spatial pattern observed for A. vitrivir