干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Cordia oncocalyx is abundant among the woody community, nevertheless it presents low density on the soil seed bank. Our hypothesis is that C. oncocalyx presents higher fruit density in areas with higher adult density, once it’s fruit, although proper for wind dispersal, but not being dispersed though long distances. The low density, result of unproper sample size and methodology used during analyses. To test these hypothesis, a caatinga area was selected in the end of the dry season a hectare was chosen and in it’s inside thirty 100 m(2) squares were selected to count the adult trees and thirty 1m((sic)) squares to count the fruit bank among the leaf litter. Our results showed a fruit density of 67,5 +/- 90,17 fruits/m(2) and 2 +/- 2 trees/100m(2). The predation rate was 20%, value similar to the ones found in arid and semiarid systems. A positive correlation was found between the adult tree density and i) the fruit density (rs = 0,5836, p < 0,05) and ii) the proportion of predated fruits (rs = 0,3665, p < 0,05). The seed density was higher than the ones found in previous studies. Nevertheless, these results agregad dispersal and seed density estimate method.