The intensive management in plantations of restoration influences the natural regeneration of native species in the understory?

Abstract

Native species reforestation is today the main method of forest restoration in human-dominated landscapes, as such as the Atlantic Forest, because of the reduced resilience of the degraded areas. In this type of reforestation, intensive methods of management and the improvement of the initial occupation of the area by planted species have been shown to be efficient in order to establishing tree plantations in degraded areas. However, to achieve successful ecological restoration, it is necessary that these methods do not hamper the regeneration of native species in the understory of the reforestation. In this context, this study aims to assess whether, and eventually how, the intensive silvicultural management, the proportion of pioneers, and tree density influence natural regeneration of native species in the understory. The project will be carried out in a restoration planting with twenty native species, installed in March 2004 at the Experimental Station of the Department of Forest Sciences, "Luiz de Queiroz" College of Agriculture, in Anhembi-SP. It was tested in a factorial design and randomized blocks, the effect of higher planting densities, higher proportion of pioneers, and management intensity (fertilization and weed control). We will establish eight sub-plots of 3 x 3 m in each effective plot (10% of the effective area of the plot), in which we will evaluate, in the dry and rainy seasons, all individuals taller than 50 cm present at the regeneration. We will also evaluate canopy opening and soil cover by invasive grasses in these sub-plots.(AU)