The predominant role of soil in determining species composition of fern communities in subtropical coastal forest ecosystems

• Published in: Neotropical biology and conservation Vol. 14; no. 4; pp. 559 - 575
• Main Authors: Carmes, Amanda Angélica, Dechoum, Michele de Sá, Fiaschi, Pedro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sophia Pensoft Publishers 18-12-2019
• Subjects: Abiotic factors; Abundance; Coastal ecosystems; Ferns; Forest ecosystems; Forests; Habitats; Multivariate analysis; Soil characteristics; Species composition; Species diversity; Species richness; Terrestrial ecosystems; Tropical forests; Variance analysis; Vegetation
• ISSN: 2236-3777; 1809-9939; 2236-3777
• DOI: 10.3897/neotropical.14.e49028

Ferns are an important component in the understorey of tropical forests and their distribution is influenced by several biotic and abiotic factors. At a regional scale, soil characteristics and canopy openness play an important role in fern species composition and richness, as well as in the abundance of individuals. Our objective was to compare the influence of edaphic conditions and vegetation structure on the abundance and distribution of fern communities in Atlantic forest and
restinga
forest. Our hypotheses were that fern species richness and diversity are higher in Atlantic forest than in
restinga
due to limiting conditions in this habitat and the composition of fern species in Atlantic forest differs from
restinga
, especially due to differences in edaphic conditions. A principal coordinates analysis was applied to ordinate sampling units in relation to the environmental variables and a permutational multivariate analysis of variance was used to test that environmental variables did not differ between the two vegetation types. Species richness was compared using rarefaction curves. The influence of abiotic variables in species composition and abundance was verified using canonical correspondence analysis. No differences were observed in species richness, diversity or dominance between vegetation types, although abundance was higher in
restinga
. Fern communities respond to edaphic conditions and vegetation structure variations between vegetation types, the soil playing a major role. A greater variety of habitats resulting from differences in soil drainage in
restinga
facilitates the co-existence of species with different ecological tolerance, increasing local diversity and compensating for limiting conditions in
restinga
.