Fenologia da vegetação lenhosa em uma área de dunas no litoral do Maranhão, Brasil

Abstract

Phenology is considered an important parameter to characterize ecosystems. Therefore, the phenological studies of communities contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of plant communities, with information on the distribution of resources throughout the year and their relationship with abiotic factors, providing data to support projects to recover degraded areas. The objective is to characterize the phenology of the woody plant community in dunes of Maranhão coast, east of the Amazonian coast, in northeastern Brazil. Data on leaf flush and abscission, flowering and fruiting were estimated, in a period of fifteen days, during 12 months, in 114 individuals of woody species, including a cactus species, distributed in 19 species and 16 family. The statistical tests to test the occurrence of seasonality and relation with climatic factors were circular analysis and multiple regression analysis. In results, we present the paper named Aspectos fenológicos da comunidade vegetal lenhosa em dunas costeiras no leste amazônico, Brasil (which will be submitted to the Brazilian Journal of Botany), which present the fenology the coastal dunes located in east of coastal amazonic extreme, by with yours leaf features, pollination syndromes and seed dispersal. We also evaluate if phenological aspects of the community presented relations with climatic factors, comparing the results with those of other coastal plain areas located in different latitudes. The community did not present a seasonal pattern, nor did it correlate with the climatic factors evaluated and exhibited greater similarity of their phenophases with the areas inserted in lower latitude. Possibly, the phenological pattern of coastal vegetation presents similarities that become even stronger in places with near latitudes. These results increase knowledge about the functioning of this ecosystem and reinforce the need for more attention to the coastal areas, promoting the conservation of vegetation.