Spatiotemporal assessment of the effect of different environmental variables on tropical forest biodiversity patterns
tropical forest, environmental variables, biodiversity, fired coal, Neotropical, Pantropical, Amazonia, Cerrado
This doctoral project has four chapters developed at different spatiotemporal scales to assess the responses of tropical forest trees to the highly dynamic and complex climatic and physical-chemical environment. In the first chapter, we aim to identify the variables that shape the biodiversity of neotropical trees, to determine which variables have the greatest effect, how taxonomic groups respond to them, and whether there are similar responses between groups of species. The second chapter aims to identify whether there is similarity (or not) between the Amazonian and Congo tropical tree communities, considering their unity and structural continuity in the past. The objectives are to determine whether the spatial proximity in the past, of the Amazonian and Congo tree communities, can explain the similarity and speciation based on a new proposed variable called Biogeographic Distance. In the third chapter, the underlying hypothesis is to corroborate whether the Cerrado biome presents hyperdominance, for that the objectives are to identify hyperdominance and verify if there is overlap or segregation between the hyperdominant species of the Cerrado and Amazon biomes. In the last chapter, we hope to determine the possible positive feedback of fire events on tree communities, for this the objectives are to determine the feedback of biomass loss by the effects of fire and the production of PyC in the soil and to assess whether variations in the concentrations of this mineral can affect regeneration in tree communities.