Restauração ecológica de matas ciliares: uma trajetória autossustentável após 20 anos, é possível?

Abstract

Ecological restoration is one of the most accomplished activities in the search to recover degraded forest ecosystems. Restoration has become one of the global goals to meet agreements to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere, and increase the ecosystem services offered. The restoration process needs to be evaluated and monitoring continuously to verify its current trajectory in the search for a selfsustaining ecosystem as the final goal. The present study had as main objective to obtain a diagnosis of the current process of ecological restoration in ciliary environments from six key attributes linked to the composition, diversity and functionality of these ecosystems in restoration, using a reference ecosystem. Two restoration areas with 24 years (A24a and A24b), two 26-year restoration areas (A26a and A26b) and a reference ecosystem (ER), located in the states of Minas Gerais and São Paulo, were selected river of the Rio Grande. For evaluation, six key attributes of ecological restoration were selected according to the International Society for Ecological Restoration; for each attribute, three indicators select and at least one field checker was selected for each indicator. The verifiers were evaluated in permanent plots in all study areas and a qualitative analysis of the obtained data was obtained, obtaining for each indicator a score of one to five in relation to the reference ecosystem. As key results, the key attributes Absence of threats and physical conditions in all areas under restoration were similar to those of RE, evidencing the base for forest population installation. The key attributes of species Composition and Structural Diversity presented low values regarding the richness observed in the arboreal strata (EA) and natural regeneration (RN), as well as the total density of individuals of the EA. In the key attributes of External Exchanges and Ecosystem Function, the ER presented the lowest note regarding the presence of tree species in the soil seed bank, the collection season may have contributed to this evaluation. However, the total density of the NB as the ecosystem functionality, in the indicator of resilience and recruitment, was shown to be low in the areas under restoration. All areas under restoration presented a satisfactory trajectory, but without achieving selfsustainability. Keywords: ind