Estrutura populacional de Euterpe edulis Mart. em um remanescente florestal em São Jorge d’Oeste - PR

Abstract

Euterpe edulis Mart. (palmeira-juçara) is an important species of the Atlantic Forest biome and it is currently threatened due to its intense extractivism over the last decades. This study aimed to verify the population structure of E. edulis in a conserved forest remnant in the Southwest region of Paraná, by classifying them into ontogenetic stages, since information about the species in the Semidecidual Seasonal Forest is rare in the literature. The individuals were sampled in 17 sample units of 500 m² (10 m x 50 m) with subplots (10m x 10m, 10m x 1m and 5m x 1m) for regeneration evaluation, distributed in a contiguous area of 51 ha in which the palm tree occurs. The palmeira-juçara was classified as: Seedling, Young I, Young II, Immature I, Immature II and Adult. We estimated 16,177 individuals per hectare with 94.12% of absolute frequency in the sample units. The frequencies and densities of each stage of development were obtained, which generated a demographic pyramid with 74 adults / ha. The spatial distribution pattern of the population in this fragment was aggregated for all stages and presented a positive correlation between Young X seedlings I (0.79) and Immature X Adult (0.70). We concluded that this population tends to decrease in the next years if there is no enrichment of the species in the area, due to the low recruitment of the regenerating individuals and low abundance of individuals in the intermediate classes.