Potencial de espécies nativas para revegetação de campos rupestres

Abstract

The introduction of plant species is a central topic in restoration research and a relevant active restoration technique for degraded areas in ecosystems with great biodiversity and low resilience, as are the rupestrian grasslands. Once implemented, the planting of native species is generally monitored for a limited time. Our pioneer study provides the first available information of the performance of 10 native rupestrian grassland species 8.5 years after transplanted into a degraded area. Survivorship, growth and recruitment were assessed in 2004, 2008 and 2012. For all species, analyzed parameters varied over time, and suggested a trade-off between different plant functions, as a response of the influences of environmental conditions, biotic interactions and ontogenetic changes. It was also observed a great ability of the species to resprouting. The studied species, in general, have shown remarkable capacity to overcome the extreme environment of the degraded area, persisting either through surviving or recruiting new individuals over the years.