The non-arboreous community of cerrado sensu stricto facing changes in light and litter under tree encroachment: species dynamics, germination and functional responses

Abstract

Fire absence has enabled tree encroachment of typical savanna areas of Cerrado and this increases tree density, decreasing the understory incident light and increasing the litter layer. In this condition, typical savanna non-arboreal species richness is lower and this may mean that the typical savanna non-arboreal species is impaired by environmental changes induced by tree encroachment. Thus, this project aims to understand the non-arboreal species dynamics and their functional responses to the luminosity decrease and litter increase. Moreover, the germination niche of non-arboreal species will be investigated, taking into account luminosity and temperature variations in the studied environments as will be studied the litter mechanical effect on emergence and initial growth of typical savanna non-arboreal species.