CONGRESO
LXV CONGRESSO NACIONAL DE BOTÂNICA
BOTÁNICA
XXXIV ERBOT - Encontro Regional de Botânicos MG, BA, ES 18 A 24 DE OUTUBRO DE 2014 - SALVADOR - BAHIA - BRASIL
Latinoamericano de
Botânica na América Latina: conhecimento, interação e difusão
FOREST STRUCTURE AND INDIVIDUAL TRAITS OF
LIGUSTRUM LUCIDUM (WT AITON) IN NATIVE AND
NOVEL HABITATS
AUTOR(ES):Lia Montti;Marta Ayup;Roxana Aragón;Weilong Qi;Silvia
Pacheco;Honghua Ruan;Xiaoming Zou;H. Ricardo Grau;
INSTITUIÇÃO:
Instituto de Ecología Regional
Fac. de Ciencias Naturales
Universidad Nacional de Tucumán
CONICET
Argentina.
Instituto de Ecología Regional
Ligustrum lucidum (W.T. Aiton) (Gloosy privet), a tree species native to
China, has invaded many regions of the world in the last decades. In
Argentina, it invades subtropical mountain forests (Yungas) where it affects
ecosystem processes, species interactions and habitat quality. In spite of its
ecological impact there is a lack of information about the characteristics of
its natural habitat and the potential changes in this species trait in native
and invaded ranges. In this study, we explore this species climate niche and
growth patterns in its native range and we compare them with its attributes
in the novel range. In its native distribution L. lucidum is very common in
gardens and plantations but it is present at low abundance in natural
forests, occurring between 1000-1500 mm annual precipitation and 15-20
°C mean annual temperature. In the novel areas this species expanded as
monodominant in secondary forests, with very low plant diversity, and basal
area and biomass significantly higher than in Chinese native forests. In NW
Argentina this species occur at similar temperature range but its distribution
includes drier areas (500 mm). Importantly, even though native and novel
ranges have opposite seasonality, the species fruiting partially overlaps in
time. In China L. lucidum produce fruits during the summer (July-August)
interestingly, in Argentina the fruiting peak is during the same months,
even though they represent the winner season in this hemisphere.
Phenological patterns appeared not be climate dependent in this species
and have an adaptive significance that together with tree attributes can aid
to understand its invasiveness in novel habitats.