**Methods for Biodiversity Assessment: Case Study in an Area of Atlantic Forest in Southern Brazil Area of Atlantic Forest in Southern Brazil**

**Methods for Biodiversity Assessment: Case Study in an** 

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.71824

Maria Raquel Kanieski, Solon Jonas Longhi and Philipe Ricardo Casemiro Soares and Philipe Ricardo Casemiro Soares Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Maria Raquel Kanieski, Solon Jonas Longhi

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.71824

#### **Abstract**

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44 Selected Studies in Biodiversity

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Populations and species are disappearing due to disturbances in the environment caused by human activities. Given, the obvious risk of loss of diversity, it is increasingly necessary to take actions concerning preservation, in which safety features are necessary for measuring the variation of diversity in space and time. The aim of this study was to evaluate the structure and diversity in the arboreal component and natural regeneration in an area of Araucaria Forest in Southern Brazil. The vegetation sampling was performed by analyzing 180 subunits of 10 × 10 m, where all the arboreal individuals and natural regeneration were inventoried. Different alpha and beta indexes of diversity were calculated. The Margalef, Shannon, and the Beta indexes were underestimated, possibly influenced by the size of sample unit. Index Menhinick represented the diversity in a very real form, even in small sampling units. The indexes of Simpson and MacIntosh denote low dominance and the equity indexes showed high uniformity in species.

**Keywords:** Mixed Rainy Forest, alpha indexes, beta indexes, biodiversity evaluation, natural regeneration, arboreal component

#### **1. Introduction**

Biodiversity is one of the fundamental properties of nature and source of immense potential for economic use. It is the basis of agricultural activities, livestock, forestry, and fishing, and also for the strategic biotechnology industry. The ecological functions performed by biological diversity are still little understood, although we consider it to be responsible by natural processes and products provided by ecosystems and species that sustain other life forms and change the biosphere, making it suitable and safe for life [1].

Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons

Biological diversity or biodiversity are expressions that refer to the variety of life on the planet, or to the property of living systems to be distinct. It includes plants, animals, microorganisms, ecosystems, and ecological processes in a functional unit [2].

**2. Material and methods**

**2.1. Characterization of the study area**

fields, lakes, infrastructure among others.

in the cooler half and may snow in winters.

cal barrier to the species by the existence of the Canyons.

The work was performed in six permanent plots of 100 × 100 m (10,000 m<sup>2</sup>

The distribution of selected subplots in each parcel can be observed in **Figure 2**.

(**Figure 1**).

**2.2. Sampling**

into 10 tracks of 10 × 100 m (1000 m2

This study was conducted on National Forest (FLONA) of São Francisco de Paula, administered by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), constituting a conservation unit of sustainable use. The aim of this type of conservation unit (UC) is to make nature conservation with the sustainable multiple uses of its natural resources and stimulate

Methods for Biodiversity Assessment: Case Study in an Area of Atlantic Forest in Southern Brazil

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.71824

47

The FLONA is located in the northeast of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil, in the city of San Francisco de Paula. It has a total area of 1606.69 ha, which 9019 ha are occupied by native forests (Mixed Rainy Forest and Dense Rainy Forest), over 600 ha by planted forests (*Pinus* spp., *Araucaria angustifolia*, and *Eucalyptus* spp.) and the rest by other areas such as

The region is one of the wetter of the State, with more than 2000 mm rainfall per year and with annual average temperature of approximately 14.5°C. According to the Köppen's climate classification, the climate is classified as "Cfb" mesothermic medium [9]. The average relative humidity is 83.9%. Summer is characterized by mild temperatures and winter by constant and intense cold, where the average temperature is close to 0°C. Frosts are common

The types of soil found in the FLONA are Cambisols, Chernozems, and Newsoils [10]. Geomorphology is marked by a strongly wavy relief in the northern part, with an altitude of 930 m and rugged in the South, forming canyons with more than 100 m in depth [11]

The predominant forest vegetation belongs to the Mixed Rainy Forest. In addition to *Araucaria angustifolia* (Bertol.) Kuntze, which prints a physiognomic character in this vegetation, it is common to find other tree species such as *Sebastiania commersoniana* (Baill.) L. b. SM. & Downs, *Cedrela fissilis* Vell., *Podocarpus lambertii* Klotzsch ex Endl., among others. It has the peculiarity to be a transition zone between the Mixed Rainy Forest and Dense Rainy Forest, with endemic species as *Oreopanax fulvum* Marchal, typical of the Atlantic forest [12]. The author even describes the endemism does not get more accentuated because there is a physi-

Within each plot, 30 subunits were drawn, being three subunits by track from 10 total tracks in each unit of 100 × 100 m, where vegetation surveys and environmental parameters were made.

), which were divided

).

) and these subdivided into 10 subunits of 10 × 10 m (100 m2

scientific research, with emphasis on methods for sustainable forest management [8].

The diversity is regarded as an indication of the ecosystem well-being. It indicates directly the protection of certain place, the higher the value, the larger the biodiversity of the ecosystem in question [3].

Because it is an extremely complex structure, there is a problem to evaluate biodiversity, so we need to find simplified variables for its determination [4]. Some of them—as the composition, type of regeneration, introduced species, the presence of dead trees and the landscape have been defined according to the 4th Ministerial Conference on the protection of forests, in Vienna, 2002. Especially biodiversity is important, since it represents the state of conservation of ecosystems, including forests, where it can help evaluate the sustainability of the resources are managed [1].

Biological diversity is a central theme of ecological theory and has been the subject of many discussions. Currently, researchers have developed a large number of parameters for the measurement of biodiversity as an indicator of the state of ecological systems, with practical applicability for purposes of conservation, management, and environmental monitoring [5].

Biodiversity can be expressed in four levels: diversity of genes, species, and ecosystems settlement. It can be appreciated by the number (wealth) of different biological categories and relative abundance (evenness) of these categories; and also for variability in local level (alpha diversity), the complementarity between biological habitats (beta diversity) and variability between landscapes (gamma diversity) [6]. It includes, therefore, all the living or biological resources, genetic resources, and their components.

Any environmental protection strategy must ensure the maintenance of biodiversity. All the living beings that inhabit a country constitute an irreplaceable heritage, because each species, as well as each population, has in its genetic composition information from millions of years of evolutionary adaptations. However, in order to exercise management plans and protection of nature reserves, trusted tools able to measure its variation in space and time are required.

Assessing the biodiversity of an ecosystem by its forestry component assumes that the arboreal component is what sustains a forest ecosystem [7]. Already the quantification of diversity through natural regeneration allows a complete characterization of the forest as an ecosystem, and not only by its arboreal component. This approximate evaluation of possible interventions made in settlements, as well as the intensity and provides a rough overview of the volume of the existing biomass in the forest, whose presence can be very relevant with regard to fire prevention, energy potential, and characterization of biodiversity.

Considering the importance of the subject, the objective of this work is to evaluate the arboreal component and natural regeneration biodiversity in an Atlantic Rainy Forest area in Southern Brazil, through different diversity indices in order to find the variables that better represent the current status of diversity in study environment.
