Abstract

URREGO-G., Ligia Estela. Mauritia-dominated forests and mangroves: Tropical swamp forests, as similar as contrasting. Rev. acad. colomb. cienc. exact. fis. nat. [online]. 2018, vol.42, n.162, pp.80-95. ISSN 0370-3908.  https://doi.org/10.18257/raccefyn.553.

Despite the marked difference between Mauritia-dominated forests and mangroves, given the marine influence on the latter, similarities were identified from the analysis of vegetation data, taken in plots of 1000 m2, and canonical correspondence analysis. Restrictive environmental factors, such as drainage, flooding, and the depth of the organic horizon, influenced the structure and diversity of vegetation in both forests. Diversity increased with the progressive reduction of the stress conditions associated with these factors, along the environmental gradient, from very poorly drained clayish soils, in basins and depressions, to dikes and well drained highest sites of the floodplains, where colonization of species from neighbouring forests take place. The post-glacial climatic changes detected on palynological analysis of sediment cores, evidenced the progressive colonization of the dominant species, but the conditions of the Holocene thermal maximum allowed the establishment and expansion of Mauritiadominated forests and, with the stabilization of the sea-level, of the mangroves around 4000 years AP. Analysis of satellite images, phenological observations and time series of climatic variables showed that Rhizophora mangle and Mauritia flexuosa have responded positively to short-term droughts associated with ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation). Events, such as storm surges in mangroves, have influenced the mortality, recruitment and survival rates of natural regeneration. The major vegetation changes in the last decades are mainly associated with anthropogenic disturbances.

Keywords : Natural regeneration; Phenology; Pollen; Amazon; Caribbean; Extreme events.

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