Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T14:41:34.050Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Grasses of the Precambrian Shield region in eastern lowland Bolivia. I. Habitat preferences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Timothy J. Killeen
Affiliation:
Missouri Botanical Garden, PO Box 299, St. Louis, Missouri 63166, USA
Paul N. Hinz
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA

Abstract

The habitat distribution and relative abundance of 113 species of Gramineae were documented by releves in 82 stands near Conception, Santa Cruz, Bolivia. A factor analysis was used to compare the floristic similarity of stands situated in semideciduous forest, cerradao, cerrado, campo rupestre, valley-side campo, pantanal complex or on granite outcrops. Individual grass species usually had a preferred habitat and occurred with decreasing abundance in stands judged to be transitional by physiognomic, edaphic, and floristic criteria. Stands situated in cerrado vegetation were most similar to one another in grass species composition. Cerradao was transitional to semideciduous forest and cerrado but certain grasses were characteristic of this vegetation type. The floristic composition of the single campo rupestre locality was somewhat similar to cerrado; however, several of the more abundant grass species of this vegetation type did not occur in any nearby cerrado stand. Granite outcrops had a distinct grass flora and showed little similarity to other vegetation types. In savanna wetland communities, grass species distribution was influenced by water regime. Differences between stands on valley-side campo corresponded to topographic position on a gradient of increasing water surplus. Seasonally humid/dry stands on valley-side campo and pantanal complexes had a high degree of similarity. Stands lower on the catenary sequence of pantanal complexes and valley-side campos were increasingly dissimilar, a result of the different edaphic conditions of the seasonally flooded soils of pantanal complexes when compared with the permanently saturated (but never flooded) soils of valley-side campos. Pantanal complexes had the richest grass flora of all vegetation types because their microtopographic variability creates numerous micro-habitats with distinct water regimes, each supporting different grass species.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

Allem, A. C. & Valls, J. F. M. 1987. Recursos forrageiros nativos do pantanal Mato-Grossense. Empresa Brasileira de pesquisa Agropecuária – EMBRAPA. Brasilia, DF. 336 pp.Google Scholar
Beck, S. G. 1984. Comunidades vegetales de las sabanas inundadas del NE de Bolivia. Phytocoenologia 12:321350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, L. G. & Fisher, J. B. 1987. Vegetative morphology of grasses: shoots and roots. Pp. 3745 in Soderstrom, T. R., Hilu, K. W., Campbell, C. S. & Barkworth, M. E. (eds). Grass systematics and evolution. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Diniz, De Araujo, Neto, M., Haridasan, M. P. A. & Johnson, C. E. 1986. The murundus of the cerrado region of central Brazil. Journal of Tropical Ecology 2:1735.Google Scholar
Eiten, G. 1972. The cerrado vegetation of Brazil. Botanical Review 38:201341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eiten, G. 1978. Delimitation of the cerrado concept. Vegetatio 36:169178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldsmith, F. B. 1974. Multivariate analysis of tropical grassland communities in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Journal of Biogeography 1:111122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodland, R. 1971. A physiognomic analysis of the cerrado vegetation of central Brazil. Journal of Ecology 59:411419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, F. W. & Shaw, R. B. 1983. Grass systematics. (2nd edition). Texas A & M Press, College Station. 397 pp.Google Scholar
Haase, R. 1990a. Plant communities of a savanna in northern Bolivia I. Seasonally flooded grassland and gallery forest. Phytocoenologia 18:5581.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haase, R. 1990b. Plant communities of a savanna in northern Bolivia II. Palm swamps, dry grassland, and shrubland. Phytocoenologia 18:343370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heringer, E. P., Barroso, G. M., Rizzo, J. A. & Rizzini, C. T. 1977. A flora do cerrado. Pp. 211232 in Ferri, M. G. (ed.). IV Simpósio sobre o cerrado, bases para utilizacao agropecuária. Livuraria Itatiaia Editora Ltda., Sao Paulo.Google Scholar
Killeen, T. J. 1990. The grasses of Chiquitanía, Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 77:125207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Killeen, T. J. 1991. Range management and land-use practices in Chiquitanía, Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Rangelands 13:7377 Google Scholar
Killeen, T. J. & Hinz, P. N. 1992. Grasses of the Precambrian Shield region in eastern lowland Bolivia. II. Life-form and C3- C4 pholosynthetic types. Journal of Tropical Ecology 8:409433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Killeen, T. J., Louman, B. T. & Grimwood, T. 1990. La ecología paisajística de Concepción y Lomerío en la Provincía Nuflo de Chavez, Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Ecología en Bolivia 16:145.Google Scholar
Moreira De Andrade, P., Abreu, G. T. & Mesquita, G. T. S. 1986. Composicao florística e aspectos estruturais de uma área de ‘campo rupestre’ do Morro Chapéu, Nova Lima, Minas Gerais. Revista Brazileira de Bolânica 9:1321.Google Scholar
Mueller-Dombois, D. & Ellenberg, H. 1974. Aims and methods of vegetation ecology. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 547 pp.Google Scholar
Oliveira-Filho, A. T., Shephard, G. J., Martins, F. R. & Stubblebine, W. H. 1986. Environmental factors affecting physiognomic and floristic variation in an area of cerrado in central Brazil. Journal of Tropical Ecology 5:413431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ratter, J. A., De Freitas Leitao Filho, H., Argent, G., Gibbs, P. E., Semir, J., Shepard, G. & Tamashiro, J. 1988. Floristic composition and community structure of a southern cerrado area in Brazil. Notes from the Royal Botanical Garden, Edinburgh 45:137151.Google Scholar
Sendulsky, T. & Burman, A. G. 1978. Paspalum species of the Serra do Cipo I. A contribution to the study of Brazilian Poaceae. Revista Brasileira de Botânica 1:115.Google Scholar
Sendulsky, T. & Burman, A. G. 1980. Paspalum species of the Serra do Cipo II. A contribution to the study of Brazilian Poaceae. Revista Brasileira de Botânica 3:2335.Google Scholar
Silberbauer-Gottsberger, I. 1984. Fruit dispersal and trypanocarpy in Brazilian cerrado grasses. Plant Systemalics and Evolution 147:127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silberbauer-Gottsberger, I. & Eiten, G. 1983. Fitossociologia de urn hectare de cerrado. Brasil Florestal 54:5570.Google Scholar
Silberbauer-Gottsberger, I. & Gottsberger, G. 1984. Cerrado-Cerradão, a comparison with respect to number of species and growth forms. Phyocoenologia 12:293303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soderstrom, T. R. 1981. Observations on a fire-adapted bamboo of the Brazilian cerrado, Actinocladum verticillatum (Poaceae: Bambusoideae). American Journal of Botany 68:12001211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar