Revealing the Permanent and Transient Plant Understory in Gallery Forests in the Cerrado of Central Brazil

Abstract

The understories of tropical forests comprise complex communities and can be divided into permanent understory, where the generally shade-tolerant plant growth forms are less developed in height, and transient understory, where young tree individuals are only temporarily present. Despite a high contribution to species richness in tropical forests, the understory is poorly studied. Here, we examined the species composition, richness, structure, diversity, and the relative contribution of growth forms in permanent and transient understories of gallery forests in the Brazilian Cerrado. A total of 211 species distributed into sixty-seven families and 153 genera were sampled. The most species-rich family was Rubiaceae, and Miconia was the genus with the highest species richness. The species Hildaea pallens had the highest importance in the forests. The best-represented growth forms were tree seedlings, followed by shrubs and lianas. The transient component of the understory in gallery forests was the most diverse. However, in terms of species relative cover, both transient and permanent understory species contributed equally to the understory structure, mainly due to the high cover of Poaceae species. Our study is the first to examine composition, structure, diversity, and growth forms in the permanent and transient understories of gallery forests. Study Implications: Our study is innovative in describing the plant community attributes of gallery forest understories in the Brazilian Cerrado. The understories of tropical forests comprise complex communities and can be divided into permanent and transient understory. The transient component of the understory in gallery forests was the most diverse, represented by seedlings and young tree specimens. However, in terms of species relative cover, both transient and permanent understory species contributed equally to the understory structure. Here, we provide evidence that may be useful to initiatives seeking to conduct ecological restoration and conservation of gallery forests in the Cerrado.