Vegetation similarities on seven soils of caatinga

Abstract

Flora and plant density were studied on seven communities developed on semi-arid soils at Parnamirim, Pernambuco, Brazil. The soils were classified as: Latossolic Eutric Red-Yellow Podzolic (PE); Non Calcic Brown (NC); Litolic Non Calcic Brown (NC; Solodic Planosol (PL); Vertisol (V); Eutric Regosol, deep phase (REp), and Eutric Regosol, shallow phase (REr). Each community had a sample composed by 5 plots of 100 m², for woody plants, 20 subplots of 1 m², for herbaceous plants, and 1 soil profile. The Srensen index was used to compare the communities. The pairs of communities PL-NC and PE-NC showed the highest similitude index for density of woody plants, and the soils large chemical and physical diferences. The pair of communities PE-REp showed similarities in relation to the density of woody and herbaceous species, which can be explained by the similarities in chemical and physical properties of the two soils. The pairs of communities NC-NC, V-NC and NC-V showed high similarities for the density of herbaceous species.