Composição, conhecimento e uso de plantas de campinarana por moradores da Reserva de Desenvolvimento Sustentável do Tupé – Amazônia Central

Abstract

The Amazonian white sand vegetation present a set of unique features, such as the dominance of few species, high endemism level and low species richness which differentiate it from other Amazonian forest, as the upland forests and periodically flooded forests. Besides the greater biological diversity of the planet Amazon has a great ethnic and cultural diversity, where many human populations hold a range of knowledge about the environment they live in, this knowledge related to the flora is an important cultural component to these populations and may vary greatly depending on the type of vegetation. This work was divided in two chapters, the first was investigated the floristic composition, structure, similarity, diversity and the influence of the granulometric and nutritional parameters of the soil over the tree species distribution in three Central Amazonian white sand vegetation spots. In each area three plots of 50 x 50 m were allocated, totaling 2,25 ha. The number of individuals sampled was 3956, which were divided in 140 species and 40 families. The individuals’ size was small, with few emerging, and more than half of the individuals classified in the first diameter class (5 to 10 cm). The similarity between the areas was relatively high, especially when rare species were taken away from the analysis, however, some plots of different areas presented very low similarity values between each other. The analyzed diversity index showed considerable diversity variation between the plots, however little variation between the areas, where it was found great dominance of few species. The variation of the granulometric and nutritional gradient was significantly related to the floristic composition, however the nutritional factor was preponderant in this relation. It is postulated that even small soil parameters variations can change significantly the abundance and distribution of the species, causing certain dominant species in an area to be little frequent in others. In the second chapter aimed to analyze usage patterns of white sand vegetation plants and socials characteristics of the habitants related to knowledge and use of plants. Were interviewed a total of 69 residents belonging to two communities of Sustainable Development Reserve Tupé. To evaluate the knowledge and the use of plants by the residents was used the UV (Use Value) and the index of Cognitive Salience (S) for the species considered most important (Si), and also for species considered at risk by residents (Sr). The hypothesis of ecological appearance was tested by correlation between the structural parameters of vegetation and cited ethnobotanical indexes. The residents cited the Construction category, then from the Food as the most used, wood is the part of the plant most used by residents. The variable that best explained the knowledge of residents about the plants was the residence time in the community, but the power of analysis of the explanation was low, showing that other variables not collected may be influencing this relation. The hypothesis of ecological appearance was partially proven, having been demonstrated only when analyzing the interaction of the two ethnobotanical knowledge of measurement indices used (UV and S). The phytosociological parameter that best explained the use of trees by the residents was the Relative Dominance (RDo); the test of the hypothesis of appearance by category of use showed that Construction was correlated with all phytosociological parameters, where the RDo had the highest correlation, Technology category also was correlated with the Relative Frequency (RFr) and the Importance Value (IV). The data obtained are of great importance for understanding of plant species usage patterns of a fragile environment as the white sand vegetation and to support management strategies of sustainable use conservation unit area in question.