Influence of vegetational densification on germination of non-arboreal species of Cerrado stricto sensu

Abstract

The cerrado stricto sensu (CSS) occupies 70% of the area of the Brazilian Cerrado, being constituted mainly by non-arboreal species. In the last decades, however, this one has been losing space for closed forested ones, due to the antropic influence in the regimes of fire that have been reduced or suppressed. This has allowed species sensitive to natural fires to occupy the open cerrado, which has reduced the diversity of non-arboreal species typical of CSS and altered its abiotic characteristics. In the forested cerrado, there is a reduction of the thermal amplitude and in the quantity and quality of the light that reaches the understory, which may impair the germination of species adapted to more open environments. Thus, this study aims to evaluate the germination of non-arboreal species typical of CSS under conditions that simulate the regime of temperatures and light in this environment and in forested cerrado. The hypothesis is that the seeds germinate better in conditions that simulate the CSS, that is, in the presence of light, with a greater ratio between red and far red and with a regime of greater thermal amplitude.