A presença de Coffea arabica L. (Rubiaceae) em fragmento florestal: aspectos da história de vida e sua interação com a comunidade vegetal

Abstract

Biological invasion is considered a major threat to biological diversity. One of the consequences of converting forest to fragmented landscape is the entrance of exotic species into the interior of the forest remnants. Coffea arabica L. (Rubiaceae), the coffee plant, a native shrub species of African forests and historically introduced in Brazil for commercial purposes. Currently, the plant community is composed of many fragments of forest that bordered the old farms producing coffee with pronounced dominance. The study was conducted in a fragment of semideciduous forest in São Carlos, São Paulo. This study sought to generate information about the process or stage of the life cycle that influence population growth, investigating over two consecutive years the influence of removal of C. arabica on the growth of regenerating individuals of tree and shrub species , featuring floristic and structure of regenerating community where the presence of exotic species occurs. Data were collected in two areas of the fragment (edge and inside). Evaluation of population growth rate (λ) showed that the population remains stable in different environmental conditions, noting that the species is effectively established in the fragment, characterized as invasive species in this environment. It has not been possible to conclude that coffee influences the growth and/or establishment of natural regenerating community. The diversity and abundance differ between edge and interior of the fragment, with the greatest wealth in the forest interior. Note that this is one of the last remnants of Semideciduous Forest in the region of São Carlos, and despite its small size, isolation, impoverishment and the abundant presence of coffee, especially in its edge, knowledge about the composition and this operating environment is of utmost importance.