Fitossociologia

Revista Brasil. Bot., V.28, n.4, p.651-670, out.-dez. 2005

Review paper/Artigo de revisão

Estrutura e regeneração de clareiras em Florestas Pluviais Tropicais
RENATO A. FERREIRA DE LIMA1
(recebido em: 17 de setembro de 2004; aceito em 10 de novembro de 2005)

ABSTRACT – (Canopy gap structure and regeneration in Tropical Rain Forests). This paper presents a critic review of the available knowledge on canopy gap structure and regeneration in Tropical Rain Forests. Separated on different issues such as gap size, type of treefall, physical environment, regeneration sources and ecological groups, each issue is explored in detail through the main studies published. Hence, old issues are discussed and gaps of knowledge are pointed out to enhance and ground future researches. As a result, it was observed that despite of more then three decades of research and several studies involving gap structure and regeneration, the research regarding the theme still has many questions to be answered. It also has limitations linked to the existing plurality of methods and to the difficulty of comparing different forests worldwide. It was concluded that the research involving gap structure and regeneration is on a theoretical refinement phase and, therefore, it is hard to evaluate the real contribution of canopy openings to the understanding of the different forests formations dynamics. Key words - ecological groups, gap colonization, gap regeneration, tropical rain forest RESUMO – (Estrutura e regeneração de clareiras em Florestas Pluviais Tropicais). Este trabalho apresenta uma revisão crítica do conhecimento disponível sobre a estrutura e regeneração de clareiras naturais em Florestas Pluviais Tropicais. Separada em diferentes temas como tamanho de clareiras, tipos de queda, ambiente físico, fontes de regeneração e grupos ecológicos, cada tema é explorado em detalhe através dos trabalhos publicados mais relevantes. Assim, conceitos antigos são expostos e discutidos, e as